Metal organic framework-derived Zr/Cu bimetallic photocatalyst for the degradation of tetracycline and organic dyes

The exploitation of tetracycline antibiotics (TCs) has caused significant hazards to both the humans as well as the environment. As a result, developing efficient strategies to eliminate these contaminants is both important and practicable. Photocatalytic degradation appears to be one of the most potential techniques for extracting antibiotics. Semiconductors seem to be the most extensively used photocatalysts even though their performance is still hampered by light absorption limitations and poor charge separation. MOFs are worthy choices for the construction of hierarchical nanostructures with semiconductors to address the foregoing concerns because of their extraordinary features including better surface area and extensive active sites. Zr/Cu-MOF was synthesised by precipitation refluxing method and its efficacy as a photocatalyst for the degradation of TC antibiotics and poisonous dyes such as rhodamine B and methylene blue was examined in this study. The Zr/Cu-MOF displayed excellent efficacy for degradation of tetracycline (93% in 80 min), Rhodamine B (96% in 70 min) and methylene blue (96% in 50 min) with rate constant of 0.0308, 0.052 and 0.068 min –1 . The contribution of reactive species in antibiotics and dye degradation was confirmed by radical scavenging investigations which showed that . OH radical has a significant role in photocatalytic decomposition. In addition, tests using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) were carried out in order to predict a probable mechanism for TC degradation.