Constructed a novel of Znln2S4/S-C3N4 heterogeneous catalyst for efficient photodegradation of tetracycline

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, a novel efficient photo-catalyst have been fabricated by hybridizing ZnIn2S4 and S-C3N4 through hydrothermal method. The SEM and HRTEM images, together with XPS analysis revealed that the combination of ZnIn2S4 and S-C3N4 was successful and the structure of ZnIn2S4 was well preserved, which played a crucial role for improving the photocatalytic performance. The optimum 18% ZnIn2S4/S-C3N4 nanocomposites exhibit dramatically enhanced photocatalytic performance for degradation of tetracycline with 86.3% removal rate within 120 minute, higher than 50% degradation efficiency of pure S-C3N4. The corresponding enhanced mechanism for 18% ZnIn2S4/S-C3N4 can be attributed to the effective interfacial electron-hole pairs separation and migration between ZnIn2S4 and S-C3N4. And in the process of photodegradation for tetracycline, the largest contribution rate is the photo-excited cavity (h+), followed by ∙O2− and ·OH. Herein, we have provided a good example for removing antibiotic residues by using S-C3N4 based heterojunction towards environmental remediation.