Photocatalytic degradation of antibiotic using Ni-doped thallium(I) orthotungstate nanorods: Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization

Abstract

Presence of antibiotics in the environment can induce a number of issues due to the development of antimicrobial resistance. To degrade these residuals, a variety of photocatalysts can be utilized, however, the challenge is finding wide band gap photocatalysts being effective on different types of antimicrobial agents. Therefore, a significant focus is devoted to prepare effective photocatalysts capable of degrading a broad-spectrum of antibiotics. The purpose of this study is synthesis and characterization of Ni-doped Tl2WO4 nanostructures, as a novel wide-band gap photocatalyst, by a low temperature and eco-friendly method. This photocatalyst was then evaluated for its performance towards degradation of antibiotics. First, the role of reaction condition was investigated on the morphology and a number of samples in different shapes, from flowers to planes, were produced. Ni-doped Tl2WO4 nanorods an average width of 1.12 nm demonstrated the most organized morphology with high purity and a wide band gap. Then, the photocatalytic activities of the synthesized Ni-doped Tl2WO4 nanorods were investigated towards some common antibiotics including Amoxicillin (AMX), Penicillin G (PCN), Cephalexin (CN), and Ciprofloxacin (CIP). The finding of this study showed that by using this photocatalyst and without using any oxidizing agent, 86–95% of all the tested antibiotics degraded under UV light after 90 min. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the synthesis of Ni-doped Tl2WO4 with a facile low-temperature method and its photocatalytic activity.