NiO/g-C3N4 2D/2D heterojunction catalyst as efficient peroxymonosulfate activators toward tetracycline degradation: Characterization, performance and mechanism

To promote the degradation efficiency of tetracycline (TC) by G-C3N4 photocatalysts activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) under visible light, in this study, NiO 2D porous nanosheets/g-C3N4 2D nanosheets (NiO/g-C3N4) heterojunction catalyst was prepared via calcining the uniform mixture of MOF-Ni and gC(3)N(4). This special structure benefited in rapid electron-hole pairs transfer and separation, and NiO coupling not only promoted the photon energy absorption but also provided an additional pathway for PMS activation. As expected, the obtained optimum 3NiO/g-C3N4 had a superior performance for TC removal. 100% of TC can be degraded in 60 min by 3NiO/g-C3N4 activating PMS activation under visible light, being 6.64 time that of single g-C3N4. 3NiO/g-C3N4 also shows excellent stability during recycling tests. The mechanism and pathway of TC degradation were investigated in detail. This study provides a new insight into the construction of g-C3N4-based photocatalysts with excellent photocatalysis and PMS activation efficiency toward TC removal under visible light for efficient antibiotic degradation. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.