Nanosized semiconductors are widely utilized as solar energy based photocatalyst. However, the deficiencies such as poor adsorption toward contaminants and recyclability issues, rapid recombination of photo-introduced radicals, and deactivation by scavengers are still be the obstacle. To addressing those obstacles, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), photosensitive ZnO, and paramagnetic Fe3O4 were anchored on conductive graphene oxide (GO) to prepare a nanocomposite photocatalyst ZnO/Fe3O4-GO/ZIF. The photocatalyst showed good robustness to scavengers of hydroxyl radicals (OH•), superoxide radicals (O2•-), and hole (h+) with hydrophobic ZIF-8 modified surface. Finally, four pharmaceuticals (sulfamethazine, metronidazole, norfloxacin, and 4-acetaminophen) were degraded rapidly under simulated solar irradiation for 1 h, and the photocatalyst could be recycled at least ten times without obvious deactivation. The final results show that combination of semiconductor, graphene oxide and ZIF-8 is a good idea for construction of efficient photocatalyst. It offers new views in interface modification of nanomaterials, photocatalysis, and adsorption.
Keywords: Adsorption; Heterogeneous catalysis; Nanosized semiconductor; Scavenger; ZIF-8.