Preparation of non-polluting Tb-doped mesoporous carbon nitride photocatalyst and study on the efficacy and mechanism of degradation of antibiotics in water

Wang, Bing; Cao, Qingtong; Li, Guomin; Zhang, Jian

Preparation of non-polluting Tb-doped mesoporous carbon nitride photocatalyst and study on the efficacy and mechanism of degradation of antibiotics in water

2022

Wang, Bing | Cao, Qingtong | Li, Guomin | Zhang, Jian

Given that the biological treatment of antibiotic wastewater can easily induce resistant bacteria, the photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics is considered as a better method for treating antibiotic wastewater. Therefore, the ability to remove Tylosin (TYL) and Tetracycline (TC) in aqueous solution using rare earth element Tb-doped g-C₃N₄ under simulated natural solar radiation was investigated. A series of rare earth Tb³⁺ doped mesoporous g-C₃N₄ were successfully prepared by nitric acid treatment and Tb(NO₃)₃·5H₂O samples showed significantly higher degradation efficiency for TYL and TC than pure g-C₃N₄. Leaching toxicity experiments were carried out on the catalyst using chard seeds and demonstrated negligible toxicity of the leachate from the catalyst. The structure, elemental state, optical properties, morphology, and photogenerated carrier separation of the prepared xTCN catalysts were characterized by XRD, XPS, UV–Vis DRS, TEM, and PL. The results show that Tb doping enhanced the photocatalytic activity of the g-C₃N₄ catalyst by narrowing the band gap while improving the light-trapping ability; The separation and transport rate of photogenerated carriers were significantly increased after Tb doping. Finally, a simple, efficient, and non-polluting Tb-doped carbon nitride photocatalyst is successfully developed in this paper.

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