Grain-like bismuth-rich bismuth/bismuth oxychlorides intra-heterojunction: Efficacious solar-light-driven photodegradation of fluoroquinolone antibiotics and 2-level factorial approach

The grain-like BiOCl (60%)-Bi24O31Cl10 (40%) intra-heterojunction nanophotocatalyst was fabricated by a facile one-pot combustion route using sorbitol fuel. It was characterized by the utilization of XRD, FESEM, PSD, BET-BJH and DRS, which proved its successful synthesis. The solar-light-driven photocatalytic activity of BiOCl (60%)-Bi24O31Cl (40%) was appraised through the destruction of fluoroquinolone antibiotics (FQAs) such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and levofloxacin as persistent and resisting emerging pollutants in an aqueous solution. Consequences obtained were implied to its prominent performance. To investigate the individual and interplay influences of the input operating parameters (catalyst loading, initial pollutant concentration, initial pH and reaction time), the modelling of the photocatalytic destruction of ofloxacin as the response was done by 2-level full factorial experimental design approach. A semi-empirical fourth-order regression model with R-2 = 0.9878 was expressed to relate between the response and independent variables. Results obtained of the mentioned approach demonstrated the high adequacy of the model. The influence of individual parameters and their interactions on the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of ofloxacin was possessed by the main effect graphs, contour and response surface plots. This study not only illustrates a hopeful application of the grain-like BiOCl-Bi24O31Cl10 in the solar-light-driven photo-destruction of resistant pollutants such as FQAs but also shows the favourable direction to gain the high-performance. (C) 2018 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.