Ce to enhance photocatalytic performance by CuO/CeO2 of peroxymonosulfate activation for rapid degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride

CuO/CeO2 microsphere was viewed as an economical and environment-friendly heterogeneous photocatalyst, which was synthesized via a co-precipitation technique. The physicochemical properties of as-prepared samples were characterized by various methods. 20 mg/L of TC-HCl was degraded completely within 20 min at 1 mmol peroxymonosulfate (PMS) under UV-visible light. The scavenging experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technologies revealed that SO4 center dot -, O-2(center dot -) and center dot OH were involved as active species in the CuO/CeO2/PMS system, which were responsible for efficient decomposition of TC-HCl. Moreover, it was applied to treat raw water containing TC-HCl, all the removal efficiencies were more than 89% within 22 min. The possible photocatalytic degradation mechanism for the TC-HCl was investigated. CuO/CeO2 exhibited significant light trapping enhancement after Ce introduced, which lead to enhance the photocatalytic performance. Therefore, the CuO/CeO2 can be utilized as an economical photocatalyst to activate PMS and decompose TC-HCl in aqueous solution.