Simple hydrolysis synthesis of copper oxide and bismuth oxychloride composites and visible light photodegradation of ciprofloxacin

Abstract

In this paper, the high-performance photocatalytic copper oxide and bismuth oxychloride composite material is prepared with a simple hydrolysis method and is studied by various characterization methods. The results show that the moderately loaded copper oxide significantly enhances the degradation performance, visible light response ability, and interface charge transfer ability of bismuth oxychloride semiconductors, and the recombination of electron-hole pairs is obviously inhibited. Especially, when the content of added copper oxide is about 0.04 mmol, the composite material has a saturated adsorption rate of 53.07% for ciprofloxacin. Under the irradiation of visible light for 60 minutes, the removal rate of composite material for Ciprofloxacin reaches 93.15%, which is that of pure bismuth oxychloride 6.2 times. The photocatalytic effect is improved dramatically. After five times of recycling, the material presents favorable stability and outstanding photocatalytic activity. The possible photocatalytic mechanism is discussed that Superoxide radical is the leading radical group playing the significant role in the press of photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin.