Designing of plasmonic 2D/1D heterostructures for ultrasound assisted photocatalytic removal of tetracycline: Experimental results and modeling

The extensive release of Tetracyclines (TCs) has posed severe environmental challenges. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find greener and more sustainable options for effectively degrading TCs. Here, we will design plasmonic 2D/1D heterostructures that exhibit excellent photocatalytic properties for TC removal. In this research, 2D/1D p-n heterojunctions containing TiO2 nanosheets and NiO nanorods were deposited chemically with various amounts of plasmonic silver nanoparticles (Ag(y)/TNs/NiO(x)). PXRD patterns showed pure anatase and cubic phases for TNs and NiO, respectively, and confirmed that NiO nanorods occupied the (101) facet in TNs. The FESEM and TEM micrographs showed the sheet-like structure and nanorods morphologies for TNs and NiO. The DRS, PL, and Raman studies approved that the NiO nanorods and silver nanoparticles improved the photoresponse of TNs to the visible light region. The Mott–Schottky, EIS and photocurrent analyses indicated that the p-n heterojunction decreased the interfacial resistance, improved the separation of charge carriers, and increased the photocurrent of TNs (from 0.12 µA to 3.5 µA) in Ag(0.5)/TNs/NiO(0.35) by 30 times. The efficiency of the plasmonic heterojunctions was examined for ultrasound assisted photocatalytic removal of tetracycline (TC). The experimental results were validated using two powerful machine learning techniques (ANN and SGB), and a good accordance between the predicted and experimental values was observed. The reusability tests and electrical energy per order analysis revealed that using plasmonic heterojunctions (Ag(y)/TNs/NiO(0.35)) were more cost-effective and sustainable than using the conventional TiO2 photocatalytic system.