Construction of NiTiO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction with preferable photocatalytic performance for tetracycline degradation

Tetracycline antibiotics as one of the most widely used antibiotics at present, are difficult to degrade in the environment, which poses a serious threat to the ecosystem and human health. In this work, NiTiO3/g-C3N4 composites were successfully constructed by calcination method using nickel acetate tetrahydrate as nickel source and tetrabutyl titanate as titanium source. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the 5 wt% NiTiO3/g-C3N4 composite of TC can reach 88.2 % within 150 min, which was 1.4 and 2.2 times higher than that of pure g-C3N4 (63 %) and NiTiO3 (40 %), respectively. The 5 wt% NiTiO3/g-C3N4 composite can still maintain good stability after four cycles. The experimental results showed that the construction of Z-scheme heterojunction can effectively improve the photocatalytic activity of the catalysts and maintain good redox properties at the same time. Furthermore, a possible mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of NiTiO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction has been suggested.