Synthesis of novel ternary Ag/BiVO4/GO photocatalyst for degradation of oxytetracycline hydrochloride under visible light

Abstract

A ternary visible light responsive photocatalyst, Ag/BiVO 4 /graphene oxide (GO) composite was synthesized successfully using hydrothermal method. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectra, photocurrent density and EIS analysis. The photocatalytic activity of Ag/BiVO 4 /GO (ABG) nanoparticles was tested on the removal efficiency of oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC) in aqueous phase. Compared with pure BiVO 4 and binary composites BiVO 4 /GO (BG), the fabricated ternary composite ABG exhibited the enhanced photocatalytic activity to degrade refractory organic pollutant. 90.43% OTC was removed with 0.4 g/L ABG composite after 70 min visible light irradiation. The enhanced photocatalytic ability was due to the addition of Ag and GO, which promoted the charge separation. The reusable performance for the degradation of OTC showed that 86.74% removal efficiency was maintained even after five recycles. Active species trapping experiments demonstrated that the photo-produced holes (h + ) and O 2 - played a crucial role in photocatalytic degradation of OTC. Finally, the photocatalytic mechanism was proposed. This work provided a simple preparation method for a ternary photocatalyst with greatly enhanced photocatalytic ability.