Unveiling the cobalt vanadate supported hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposite for photocatalytic wastewater treatment: Enhanced degradation of dyes, antibiotics, and real industrial wastewater

Abstract

In recent years, the expansion of industrial sectors has imposed a burden on water resources globally owing to unsustainable consumption and discharges into the environment. Here, a Co3V2O8 (CV)/hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) heterojunction has been constructed using an applicable solid-state technique that produces efficient photocatalytic action during water cleanup activities. The nanocomposite was studied utilizing different approaches such as XRD, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, EDX, XPS, UV–Vis spectroscopy, EIS, PL, BET, and M − S plots. The pristine HBN has a band gap of 5 eV, while the CV/HBN nanocomposite has a band gap of 1.8 eV. According to our findings, the photocatalyst has a high degradation ratio of up to 98.1%, 89.8%, 87.5%, 96.5%, and 90.2% in brilliant cresyl blue (CB), rhodamine-B (Rh–B), amoxicillin (AMX), metronidazole (MNZ), and industrial wastewater (IW) under visible light irradiation, correspondingly. It emphasizes that the remarkable photocatalytic activity is mostly due to the photocatalyst's superior performance and dominant absorption of visible light, as well as the efficient photogenerated carrier separation brought about by the interaction of cobalt vanadate and HBN. The catalyst demonstrated stable behavior, adhering to five reuse cycles. The present research reveals that the CV/HBN nanocomposite is a very stable and active photocatalyst that may be used as an alternative to costlier noble metal-based photocatalysts in photocatalysis applications. When compared to untreated IW, the degraded IW sample exhibits superior plant growth, which is visible from the phytotoxicity tests.