Surface and interface engineering of Z-scheme 1D/2D imprinted CoZn-LDH/C3N4 nanorods for boosting selective visible-light photocatalytic activity

Recently, the emergence of more and more coexisting organic contaminants aggravates the difficulty of water treatment and poses a threat to public health. Molecularly imprinted photocatalysts allow a highly selective removal of target active compounds, rendering wide applications in complex environmental treatment. However, the synergistic recognition and degradation performance is usually restricted by the intrinsic structural characteristics of traditional photocatalysts and the affinity barrier between semiconductor substrate and organic imprinted layer. Herein, we synthesized Z-scheme molecularly imprinted photocatalysts with CoZn-LDH heterostructure supported by porous C3N4 nanorods (MIPCoZn-LDH@C3N4). Due to the excellent light capture and high active cavities, the photodegradation rate of MIP-CoZn-LDH@C3N4 to tetracycline (TC) target could reach 79.8% under visible light within 60 min. Noticeably, the material possessed outstanding ability of selective recognition and photodegradation of TC in coexisting interference solution (k(imprinted) was 2.18 to ciprofloxacin and 2.33 to cephalothin, respectively). The mode of selective photodegradation and pathways were systematically discussed based on the deep evaluation of the mechanism experiments. Our study opens a new insight into the design of photocatalyst with selective degradation performance for the requirements of practical environmental applications. (C) 2022 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The emergence of more and more coexisting organic contaminants has posed a threat to public health and aggravated the difficulty of water treatment. Molecularly imprinted photocatalysts, which allow highly selective removal of target active compounds, have been widely used in complex environmental treatment. In this study, Z-scheme molecularly imprinted photocatalysts with CoZn-LDH heterostructure supported by porous C3N4 nanorods were synthesized. The photocatalyst exhibited excellent light capture and high active cavities, resulting in a photodegradation rate of 79.8% for the target compound tetracycline (TC) under visible light within 60 minutes. Moreover, the material showed outstanding selective recognition and photodegradation ability towards TC in the presence of interference, with imprinting factors of 2.18 for ciprofloxacin and 2.33 for cephalothin, respectively. The selective photodegradation mode and pathways were discussed based on comprehensive mechanism experiments. This research provides a new perspective for the design of photocatalysts with selective degradation performance for practical environmental applications.