Efficient Solar Light Driven Degradation of Tetracycline by Fe-EDTA Modified g-C3N4 Nanosheets

Tetracycline is widely used in medicine and usually released into the water environment directly, which brings harm to the human health and ecosystem equilibrium. In this study we developed a new strategy to efficiently remove tetracycline by a facile photocatalytic technique using a novel photocatalyst of Fe-EDTA modified g-C3N4 nanosheet. The photocatalyst was synthesized by doping metal Fe into the framework of g-C3N4 nanosheets with uniform dispersion and high stability through a facile thermal pyrolysis method using Fe-EDTA as precursor. Microstructure characterizations reveal that the Fe species exist mainly in the state of Fe3+ and chemically coordinate to g-C3N4 nanosheets host, which alter the electronic structures, facilitate the charge transfer, and increase specific surface area and light absorption, resulting in a remarkably enhanced photo-catalytic activity. This work introduces a promising precursor of Fe-EDTA and a facile method for integrating transition metal species into the framework of g-C3N4 nanosheets with drastically enhanced photocatalytic activity.