Enhanced Activation of Persulfate by Co-Doped Bismuth Ferrite Nanocomposites for Degradation of Levofloxacin Under Visible Light Irradiation

In this study, magnetic visible light driven photocatalysts (bismuth ferrite, Bi₂Fe₄O₉, BFO and Co-doped bismuth ferrite, Co-BFO) were successfully prepared by the facile hydrothermal method. The catalyst was used in the application of heterogeneous persulfate (PS) system under visible LED light irradiation for the degradation of levofloxacin (LFX), proving to be an excellent photocatalyst when evaluated by various characterization methods. The effect of Co-doping in the BFO structure was investigated that the decrease of band gap width and the generated photoelectrons and holes would effectively reduce the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, leading to the enhancement photocatalytic activity. The results demonstrated that Co-BFO catalyst had a high photodegradation efficiency over a wide pH range of 3.0-9.0 and the Co-BFO-2 composite displayed the optimal catalytic performance. It was found that the degradation rate of LFX by Co-BFO-2 catalyst was 3.52 times higher than that of pure BFO catalyst under visible light condition. The free radical trapping experiments and EPR tests demonstrated that superoxide, photogenerated holes and sulfate radicals were the main active species in the photocatalytic degradation of LFX. And a possible photocatalytic degradation mechanism of LFX was proposed in the Vis/Co-BFO/PS process. These findings provided new insight of the mechanism of heterogeneous activation of persulfate by Co-BFO under visible light irradiation.