Abstract
The increasing concentration of residual ciprofloxacin (CIP) can cause potential harm to the environment. Photocatalysis has been regarded as an effective method for the degradation of CIP. Bi/BiVO4 with excellent photocatalytic performance was synthesized partial reduction with NaBH4. The structure, morphology, composition, and optical performance of BiVO4 and Bi/BiVO4 were characterized by a variety of techniques. The results showed that the Bi/BiVO4 exhibits high photocatalytic activity in the degradation of CIP. Comparison of BiVO4 and Bi/BiVO4 has lower photoluminescence intensity and higher photocurrent responses intensity. The introduction of Bi made Bi/BiVO4 have a higher charge separation efficiency and generate more active free radicals. In addition, the radical trapping experiments revealed that superoxide free radicals and holes were the main active free radicals during the degradation of CIP. The pathway of CIP degradation was investigated through high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and a possible degradation mechanism was proposed.
Highlights
Antibiotic drugs are broadly applied for medical treatment, prevention of animal diseases, and bactericides in agriculture
Studies reported that the photocatalytic performance of a material could be significantly improved by the introduction of Bi [26,27,28]
Metallic Bi with localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) effect and the ability to adsorb O2 was generated in situ on the defective BiVO4, which was conducive to the generation of active free radicals, and improved the degradation efficiency of pollutants
Summary
Antibiotic drugs are broadly applied for medical treatment, prevention of animal diseases, and bactericides in agriculture. The photocatalytic performance of BiVO4 is still low due to the high recombination rate of photogenerated carriers [15]. The combination of noble metal and semiconductor is considered an efficient way to improve the photocatalytic activity. The LSPR effect of a noble metal can expand the light-absorption ranges of a photocatalyst and construct Schottky barrier formation to suppress the recombination of photogenerated charges. Metallic Bi with LSPR effect and the ability to adsorb O2 was generated in situ on the defective BiVO4, which was conducive to the generation of active free radicals, and improved the degradation efficiency of pollutants. The effects of common ions and water environment on the photocatalytic degradation of CIP were studied. The CIP possible degradation pathways were proposed on the basis of the identified intermediates by LC–MS
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