Fe3O4-Loaded g-C3N4/C-Layered Composite as a Ternary Photocatalyst for Tetracycline Degradation

Jiandong Gu; Hailang Jia; Shuaishuai Ma; Zhaolian Ye; Junli Pan; Ruoyu Dong; Yuqing Zong; Jinjuan Xue

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c03905

Fe₃O₄-Loaded g-C₃N₄/C-Layered Composite as a Ternary Photocatalyst for Tetracycline Degradation

ACS Omega. 2020 Nov 23;5(48):30980-30988. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c03905. eCollection 2020 Dec 8.

Authors

Jiandong Gu¹, Hailang Jia¹, Shuaishuai Ma¹, Zhaolian Ye^{1

2}, Junli Pan¹, Ruoyu Dong¹, Yuqing Zong³, Jinjuan Xue³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, PR China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control (AEMPC), Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
³ School of Environmental and Safety Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, PR China.

Abstract

A ternary photocatalyst, Fe₃O₄-loaded g-C₃N₄/C-layered composite (g-C₃N₄/C/Fe₃O₄) was fabricated by a facile sonication and in situ precipitation technique. Carbon nanosheets were prepared using the remaining non-metallic components of waste printed circuit boards as carbon sources. In this hybrid structure, g-C₃N₄ was immobilized on the surfaces of carbon nanosheets to form a layered composite, and 10-15 nm Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles are uniformly deposited on the surface of the composite material. The photocatalytic performance of the catalyst was studied by degrading tetracycline (TC) under simulated sunlight. The results showed that the photoactivity of the g-C₃N₄/C/Fe₃O₄ composite to TC was significantly enhanced, and the degradation rate was 10.07 times higher than that of pure g-C₃N₄, which was attributed to Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and carbon nanosheets. Carbon sheets with good conductivity are an excellent electron transporter, which promotes the separation of photogenerated carriers and the Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles can utilize electrons effectively as a center of oxidation-reduction. Moreover, a possible photocatalytic mechanism for the excellent photocatalytic performance was proposed.