Enhanced photocatalytic conversion of (3D/2D) BiVO4@Polypyrrole/g-C3N4 ternary composites with Z-scheme band alignment for the Antibiotic removal

The photocatalytic degradation under mild conditions is considered as a promising solution for water pollution induced by the abuse of antibiotics. Herein, a new nanocomposite constructed (3D/2D) BiVO4@Polypyrrole/g-C3N4 ternary composites with Z-scheme was successfully proposed. The result of photocatalytic performance evaluation indicated that BiVO4@Polypyrrole/g-C3N4 (5 wt%) exhibited outstanding photocatalytic activity compared with g-C3N4 and BiVO4, even under different water quality and ion doping conditions, and the degradation efficiency of tetracycline (TC) can reach 90% within 120 min. The cycle test proved that the prepared composite catalyst has good stability and reusability. DRS, PL and other characterization results illustrated that the improvement of catalytic performance was attributed to electron transfer channel between (3D) BiVO4@PPy and (2D) g-C3N4, which can effectively separate photon-generated carriers. The possible mechanism based on Z-scheme heterojunction was proposed considering the free radical capture, Mott-Schottky, LC-MS and ESR. The present work serves as a principal route to design and extend striking step-scheme g-C3N4-based nanocomposites with promising environmental purification and solar fuel generation usage.

Automated summary

This study successfully designed a new ternary nanocomposite with promising photocatalytic degradation effect on water pollution induced by the abuse of antibiotics, showing great potential for environmental purification and solar fuel generation.