Visible-light driven dual heterojunction formed between g-C3N4/BiOCl@MXene-Ti3C2 for the effective degradation of tetracycline

Gaurav Sharma; Amit Kumar; Shweta Sharma; Mu Naushad; Dai-Viet N Vo; Mohd Ubaidullah; Sabry M Shaheen; Florian J Stadler

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119597

Visible-light driven dual heterojunction formed between g-C₃N₄/BiOCl@MXene-Ti₃C₂ for the effective degradation of tetracycline

Environ Pollut. 2022 Sep 1:308:119597. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119597. Epub 2022 Jun 14.

Authors

Gaurav Sharma¹, Amit Kumar², Shweta Sharma³, Mu Naushad⁴, Dai-Viet N Vo⁵, Mohd Ubaidullah⁴, Sabry M Shaheen⁶, Florian J Stadler⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, Nanshan District Key Lab. for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China; International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University, Solan 173212, Himachal Pradesh, India; Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPNA-CSIC) Avda. Astrofísico Fco. Sánchez 3, 38206, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Electronic address: gaurav8777@gmail.com.
² College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, Nanshan District Key Lab. for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China; International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University, Solan 173212, Himachal Pradesh, India; School of Science and Technology, Glocal University, Saharanpur, India.
³ International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University, Solan 173212, Himachal Pradesh, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Center of Excellence for Green Energy and Environmental Nanomaterials (CE@GrEEN), Nguyen Tat Thanh University, 300A Nguyen Tat Thanh, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City, 755414, Viet Nam.
⁶ International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University, Solan 173212, Himachal Pradesh, India; University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water, and Waste-Management, Laboratory of Soil, And Groundwater-Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285, Wuppertal, Germany.
⁷ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, Nanshan District Key Lab. for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China.

PMID: 35709915
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119597

Abstract

In the present study, we have successfully formulated a dual heterojunction of g-C₃N₄/BiOCl@MXene-Ti₃C₂ (GCBM) which was found to be highly active in the visible region. GCBM was found to be highly efficient for the degradation of an antibiotic, tetracycline (TC) as compared to the individual constituting units; g-C₃N₄ and BiOCl. Maximum of 97% TC degradation rate was obtained within 90 min of visible light irradiation for initial concentration of 10 mg/L of TC. Optical analysis exhibited that the synthesized heterojunction showed high absorption in the complete spectrum. The reactive species specified by the scavenger study showed the major involvement of ^•O₂^- and ^•OH radicals. The charge transfer mechanism showed that 2 schemes were majorly involvement in which Z-scheme was formed between g-C₃N₄ and BiOCl and Schottky junction was formed between g-C₃N₄ and Mxene-Ti₃C₂. The formation of Schottky junction helped in inhibiting the back transfer of photogenerated charges and thus, helped in reducing the recombination rate. The synthesized photocatalyst was found to be highly reusable and was studied for consecutive 5 cycles that generalized the high proficiency even after repetitive cycles.

Keywords: Dual heterojunction; MXene; Schottky junction; Tetracycline; Wastewater treatment; Z- scheme.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Catalysis
Light
Tetracycline*
Titanium*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Titanium
Tetracycline