Performance and mechanism of atrazine degradation using Co3O4/g-C3N4 hybrid photocatalyst with peroxymonosulfate under visible light irradiation

Due to the carcinogenicity of atrazine, the effective removal of atrazine in water and soil has become the focus of attention. In the paper, the advanced oxidation technology based on sulfate radicals (SO4 center dot-), which the visible light catalysis and nanocatalyst Co3O4/g-C3N4 synergistically catalyzed to yield SO4 center dot-, was constructed to efficiently degrade and remove atrazine. The Co3O4/g-C3N4 was prepared through a simple solvothermal method, and its microstructure and composition were characterized by SEM and XRD. A series of experiments were carried out to degrade atrazine by Co3O4/g-C3N4 activation of peroxymonosulfate under visible light, which revealed that the degradation efficiency reached to 78.5 percent in 35 min, CO32- had a significant inhibitory effect on the degradation of atrazine in coexisting ions of NO3-, SO42-, Cl- and CO32-, the e-, center dot OH, and SO4 center dot- were mainly active species. Combined with density function theory calculations of Co3O4/g-C3N4, the high-efficiency degradation of atrazine was due to the synergetic enhancement between photocatalysis and Co3O4/g-C3N4 catalyst in the constructed catalytic system.

Automated summary

This study focused on effectively degrading and removing atrazine in water and soil through advanced oxidation technology based on sulfate radicals. By using visible light catalysis and nanocatalyst Co3O4/g-C3N4, the synergistic catalysis yielded SO4 center dot- to efficiently degrade atrazine. Experiments showed that degradation efficiency reached 78.5% in 35 minutes, with CO32- significantly inhibiting the degradation process.