Facile Synthesis of Visible Light-Induced g-C₃N₄/Rectorite Composite for Efficient Photodegradation of Ciprofloxacin.

Zhiming Sun,Rui Zhu,Xiangwei Zhang,Bin Wang,Xiongbo Dong,Jie Xu

doi:10.3390/ma11122452

Abstract

A novel kind of g-C3N4/rectorite composite with high visible-light photoactivity was developed via a mild and cost effective two-step process. Ciprofloxacin (CIP), a typical antibiotic, was applied to evaluate the photoactivity of the received catalysts. Furthermore, the by-products of CIP photodegradation were analyzed and the possible degradation pathways were also discussed. Compared with bare photocatalysts, the received composite possessed well reusability and higher photoactivity towards CIP. According to the characterization analysis results, layered g-C3N4 was successfully immobilized on layered rectorite, which could not only promote its adsorption capacity but also provide more reactive sites for CIP adsorption and photodegradation. Compared with bare g-C3N4, the photoactivity of the prepared composite was significantly enhanced. The enhancement should be mainly due to the lower recombination rate of photogenerated carriers and the improved adsorption capacity toward CIP. This study demonstrated that the obtained g-C3N4/rectorite composite should be a promising alternative material in wastewater treatment.

Highlights

With the fast development of industry, a large volume of wastewater, the residuals of medicine such as ciprofloxacin (CIP) are excreted into the ground waters, which seriously threaten the existence and long-term development of human society due to their biotoxicity and refractory [1].To address these issues, traditional solutions such as ultrafiltration [2], absorption [3,4] and biological treatment [5] have been widely applied
The rectorite (RE) used in the study was obtained from Zhongxiang city, Hubei province, China, which was used as the carrier of g-C3 N4
The rectorite was calcined at 550 ◦ C (RE-550 ◦ C) as same as the synthesis of bare g-C3 N4 catalyst

Summary

Introduction

With the fast development of industry, a large volume of wastewater, the residuals of medicine such as ciprofloxacin (CIP) are excreted into the ground waters, which seriously threaten the existence and long-term development of human society due to their biotoxicity and refractory [1]. To address these issues, traditional solutions such as ultrafiltration [2], absorption [3,4] and biological treatment [5] have been widely applied. Compared with TiO2 nanoparticles, the band gap of g-C3 N4 is lower

Methods

Results

Conclusion