Abstract
Constructing superior Z-type photocatalytic heterojunction is beneficial to effectively enlarge interface contact, improve the photo-generated carrier separation rate, and retain the high redox ability. In this work, we designed a hierarchical core–shell g-C3N4/TiO2 structure to build Z-type heterojunction via combining simple template method and pyrolysis process. A close-knit Z-type heterojunction was constructed using TiO2 as a thick core and g-C3N4 as an ultra-thin shell. The effects of lamp source, wavelength, tetracycline (TC) concentration, and photocatalyst dose on the degradation performance on TC of g-C3N4/TiO2 were inspected. 0.1TiO2/g-C3N4 photocatalyst had the best degradation rate and highest removal rate within 30 min, and its degradation rate was about 49, 23, and 5 times than pure g-C3N4, TiO2, and commercial TiO2/g-C3N4 in respect. Moreover, compared with degradation ability under Xenon lamp, LED irradiation for g-C3N4/TiO2 composites showed a remarkable selective degradation. The fast and efficient Z-type transfer pathway of 0.1 g-C3N4/TiO2 was realized by forming an optimized interface and abundant surface active sites ascribed to the combined action of thick TiO2 core and ultra-thin g-C3N4 shell. In addition, the degradation intermediates were analyzed by LC–MS and suggested pathways of degradation. The work could provide novel design concept to obtain reliable Z-type photocatalysts with hierarchical core–shell structure applied in degradation of antibiotic wastewater.
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The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on request.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51502116), the Special Funding of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016T90425), and the Innovative Practice Postdoctoral Project Foundation of Jiangmen City in China (No. JMBSH2021A03).
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Jianmei Pan: conceptualization, methodology, software, resources, project administration, writing — review and editing, supervision. Hu Liu: methodology, data curation, writing — original draft, software, writing — review and editing. Keyu E: visualization, investigation, software. Yi Guan: supervision. Wenbo Gou: software, validation. Peng Wang: investigation, validation. Ze Du: formal analysis. Chenfei Ma: software.
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Liu, H., Pan, J., E, K. et al. Selective efficient photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics and direct Z-type migration pathway for hierarchical core–shell TiO2/g-C3N4 composites. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 4582–4594 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31358-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31358-y