Visible light-driven CoMoO4/g-C3N4 photocatalyst for removal of antibiotic contaminant from wastewater

In this work, CoMoO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst was synthesized and utilized to enhance the photo- degradation efficiency of the tetracycline antibiotic pollutant (A-TC) in wastewater. The results from UV-Vis and photoluminescence analysis indicate that the optical properties and the separation rate of photogenerated electrons/holes in the CoMoO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst are significantly improved. Under the same conditions, CoMoO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst effectively removed 91.3 % of A-TC from the solution, which is significantly higher than the removal efficiencies of g-C3N4 (68.7 %) and CoMoO4 (57.9 %). Moreover, the photodegradation efficiency of A-TC in wastewater using CoMoO4/g-C3N4 was 80.2 %, suggesting the potential of the synthesized heterojunction photocatalyst for practical water treatment. In addition, the proposed degradation mechanism of A-TC using the CoMoO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst is founded on the Zscheme and the role of free radicals.