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Preparation of TiO2/Fe-MOF n‒n heterojunction photocatalysts for visible-light degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride

Chemosphere 2023 62 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Solmaz Feizpoor, Aziz Habibi‐Yangjeh, Rafael Luque, Rafael Luque

Summary

Researchers created a new photocatalyst by combining titanium dioxide with an iron-based metal-organic framework to break down the antibiotic tetracycline under visible light. The composite material achieved over 90% degradation of the antibiotic within two hours, significantly outperforming either component alone. The study demonstrates a promising approach for using light-activated materials to remove pharmaceutical pollutants from wastewater.

Visible-light-assisted photocatalysis has been recognized as an effective solution to the degradation of various pollutants including antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, microplastics, and organic dyes. Herein, an n-n heterojunction TiO/Fe-MOF photocatalyst is reported, designed via solvothermal synthesis route. TiO/Fe-MOF photocatalyst was characterized by XPS, BET, EIS, EDS, DRS, PL, FTIR, XRD, TEM, SEM and HRTEM techniques. Inspired by XRD, FTIR, XPS, EDS, TEM, SEM, and HRTEM analyses, the successful synthesis of n-n heterojunction TiO/Fe-MOF photocatalysts was proved. The migration efficiency of the light-induced electron-hole pairs was confirmed by the PL and EIS tests. TiO/Fe-MOF exhibited a significant performance for tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) removal under visible light irradiation. TC removal efficiency for TiO/Fe-MOF (15%) nanocomposite reached 97% within 240 min, ca. 11 times higher than pure TiO. The photocatalytic enhancement of TiO/Fe-MOF could be attributed to the broadening the light response range, forming an n-n junction between Fe-MOF and TiO components, suppressing charge recombination. Based on recycling experiments, TiO/Fe-MOF had a good potential to be used in consecutive TC degradation tests.

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