Preparation of a 3D flower-like spherical structure g-C3N4/CuBi2O4/Bi2MoO6 photocatalyst for efficient removal of antibiotics under visible light

For the remediation of antibiotic-contaminated water bodies, this study synthesized g-C3N4/CuBi2O4/Bi2MoO6 3D flower-like spherical photocatalysts by a solvothermal method. The tetracycline antibiotics were used as the target pollutants and degraded under visible light to evaluate the photocatalytic performance of the prepared photocatalysts. Notably, the g-C3N4/CuBi2O4/Bi2MoO6 photocatalyst achieved 84.6 % and 91.6 % for the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride and chlortetracycline (100 mL, 20 mg/L), respectively, within 2 h under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, we found that the composites showed very low degradation rates for dye-based contaminants, but still exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for antibiotics in a mixed contaminant system of dyes and antibiotics. And the intermediate was detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS), suggesting a possible photo-degradation pathway for tetracycline. Finally, biochemical experiments were carried out to further illustrate the effective degradation of antibiotics in water after photocatalytic degradation by observing and comparing the growth of mung bean seeds.