Decoration of amine functionalized zirconium metal organic framework/silver iodide heterojunction on carbon fiber cloth as a filter- membrane-shaped photocatalyst for degrading antibiotics

Abstract The development of recyclable photocatalyst with high adsorption and excellent photocatalytic performance has attracted considerable attention. Herein, we report a three-component photocatalyst by constructing porous amine functionalized zirconium metal organic framework (UiO-66-NH2) and broad photo-responsive AgI on flexible carbon fiber cloth (CFC). UiO-66-NH2 nanoparticles (200–400 nm) were in-situ grown on the surface of CFC (16.5 ± 0.5 μm, 4 × 4 cm2) by a solvothermal route, then AgI particles (50–100 nm) were synthesized on CFC/UiO-66-NH2 via a modified chemical bath deposition method. The obtained CFC/UiO-66-NH2/AgI can effectively adsorb 19.0% levofloxacin (LVFX) or 18.4% ciprofloxacin (CIP) in 60 min in the dark and degrade 84.5% LVFX or 79.6% CIP in 120 min under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the filter-membrane-shaped CFC/UiO-66-NH2/AgI can be utilized to treat the flowing sewage (CIP, 10 mg/L, ~1 L/h), and the removing efficiency of CIP reached 71.0% after 10 grades. Therefore, this work demonstrates the huge application prospect of recyclable CFC/UiO-66-NH2/AgI with high adsorption and photocatalytic capacity in flowing sewage treatment under visible light illumination.