Abstract
Herein, a stable and reusable photocatalyst based on activated carbon (AC) with varying CeO2/WO3 loadings is synthesized and optimized using Central Composite Design (CCD) with the intention of Doxycycline (DOX) degrading as an organic pollutant. Prepared optimum photocatalyst have been characterized through XRD, BET, FE-SEM, EDS-Mapping, TEM, FT-IR, and UV–Vis band gap analyses. Additionally, the effect of operational parameters including catalyst dosage (0.2–1.4 g.L−1), DOX concentration (10–50 ppm), irradiation time (20–140 min), and pH (2–10) on DOX degradation is investigated by CCD in order to highly-efficient DOX degradation. The best working condition shows an experimental degradation efficiency of 97.23%. Moreover, selected CeO2/WO3/AC photocatalyst remove 83.11% of COD from DOX solution. The h+ and •O2− radicals are found to be essential for the destruction of the DOX due to heir strong and nonselective oxidation characteristics. Furthermore, the stability of the selected photocatalyst observed after undergoing five degradation cycles.
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