UV-light promoted formation of boron nitride-fullerene composite and its photodegradation performance for antibiotics under visible light irradiation

A series of C60/BN composites have been synthesized, which can efficiently photodegrade TC under visible-light irradiation. Compared with C60/BN-D6 and C60/BN-V6 synthesized under dark and visible-light irradiation, C60/ BN-U6 synthesized under UV-light irradiation has the largest adsorption and photodegradation performance for TC under visible-light irradiation. FTIR and XPS characterizations suggest that C60/BN composite is most likely the charge transfer composite, in which C60 acts as electron acceptor and BN acts as electron donor. UV-light has the best promotion effect for the formation of C60/BN. The adsorption quantity of TC by C60/BN-U6 is 2.77 times higher than that of BN (131.05 mg g- 1 vs. 47.27 mg g- 1), being due to that C60/BN-U6 has higher surface area than BN (135.7 m2 g- 1 vs. 18.8 m2 g-1). The photodegradation of C60/BN-U6 for TC follows Z-scheme heterojunction mechanism, as well as the photo-induced ?O2- and h+ are the dominant photoactive species. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) method is applied to evaluate the toxicity of TC and its photodegradation intermediates. The photodegradation rate of C60/BN-U6 for TC is 19.19 times, 10.06 times, 5.83 times, 2.73 times and 1.84 times higher than that of TiO2 (P25), g-C3N4, BNPA, BCNPA, and BN/TiO2, respectively, implying that C60/BN-U is a good metal-free photocatalyst.

Automated summary

The study found that C60/BN synthesized under UV-light irradiation showed the best performance, with the highest adsorption and photodegradation efficiency for TC. It has a larger surface area compared to other materials, making it a promising metal-free photocatalyst.