All-solid-state Z-scheme CdTe/TiO2 heterostructure photocatalysts with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic degradation of antibiotic waste water

By Y. Gong, Yujie Wu, Yan Xu, Lei Li, Can Li, Xinjuan Liu, Lengyuan Niu. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2018

154 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Due to their high persistence and ecotoxicity, developing a green and efficient approach to remove antibiotic residuals from aquatic environments becomes a challenging task. Efficient, visible light-active and reusable semiconductor photocatalyst is a promising solution to address this issue. In this work, Z-scheme CdTe/TiO2 heterostructure photocatalysts were prepared by a hydrothermal method and the photocatalytic performance of as-prepared samples was evaluated by degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-H) under visible-light irradiation. The optimal performance was achieved for CdTe/TiO2 heterostructure photocatalyst grown at 120 °C, which can decompose 78% TC-H after 30 min irradiation. The improved photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to synergistic effects including excellent visible-light absorption, efficient charge separation and relatively high redox potentials of electrons and holes associated with Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism. The possible degradation byproducts and stability of CdTe/TiO2 heterostructures for TC-H degradation are also elucidated. This Z-scheme CdTe/TiO2 photocatalysts may present a new strategy for degradation of antibiotics, providing an invaluable methodology for alleviation of aquatic environment pollution.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f6ba44de4b985534147188f8bb15d325bef01789