Insight into sulfamethoxazole degradation, mechanism, and pathways by AgBr-BaMoO4 composite photocatalyst

Abstract

A composite photocatalyst, AgBr-BaMoO4 was fabricated by two step method; microwave hydrothermal and precipitation-deposition. The as prepared photocatalyst samples were characterized by various techniques. The facet coupling was seen between the (204) plane of BaMoO4 and (200)/(222) planes of AgBr on the basis of XRD/HRTEM analysis. The pharmaceutical pollutant, sulfamethoxazole was adopted to investigate the photocatalytic performances of samples under UV–vis irradiation. The AgBr-BaMoO4 composite degraded the aqueous sulfamethoxazole drug in UV–vis light about 64% within 75 min, which was attributed to efficient separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs across the interface between Ag/AgBr and BaMoO4. The multi-electron induced oxygen reduced reaction (ORR) was observed. The radical trapping experiment indicates that OH• has major role for sulfamethoxazole degradation. The four successive photodegradation of sulfamethoxazole in UV–vis light indicates the stability of composite photocatalyst. Furthermore, the three different degradation pathways were designed on the basis of retention time and molecular masses of 18 degraded organic fragments that was confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography photodiode array (HPLC-PDA) and high resolution-quadruple time of flight electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (HR-QTOF ESI/MS) techniques. The total organic carbon (TOC) analysis suggested the mineralization of SMZ by composite photocatalyst. This study not only demonstrates the enhancement of photocatalytic performance of wide band gap semiconductor by making composite with narrow band gap semiconductor but also detail degradation pathways and mechanisms of sulfamethoxazole.