Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of O‐deficient Modified CuAl₂O₄/MoS₂ Composite Photocatalysts in Wastewater Treatment Applications

Abstract

The O‐deficient modified CuAl2O4/MoS2 composite photocatalysts (ODMCAOMSCP) are fabricated by a wet chemical route and low‐temperature treatment for the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC). The fine particles dotted on the large sheet are revealed to be comprised of large sheets with rich oxygen defects and nanoparticles, which endows it with a high optical absorption coefficient, available reactive species, excellent charge carrier separation, and high photocatalytic activity. The finely designed ODMCAOMSCP achieve a TC degradation first‐order rate constant of 0.01436 min−1, which is 3.99 and 2.70 times higher than that of MoS2 and CuAl2O4, respectively. Response surface analysis reveals that multiple environmental factors including initial TC concentration, catalyst content, and initial pH affect the photocatalytic activity of the catalyst on the basis of backpropagation (BP) neural network optimized by genetic algorithm and Box‐Behnken design. The degradation intermediates and degradation pathways are determined by a liquid chromatograph‐mass spectrometer (LC‐MS). The toxicity of TC over ‐ ODMCAOMSCP is studied by the toxicity analysis software and the cultivation of mung bean. Mechanism investigation demonstrates that the major active species of ODMCAOMSCP for the degradation TC are attributed to oxygen vacancy, hydroxyl radical (∙OH), and superoxide radical (∙O2−).

A novel CuAl2O4/MoS2/BaFe12O19 magnetic photocatalyst simultaneously coupling type I and Z-scheme heterojunctions for the sunlight-driven removal of tetracycline hydrochloride

“…3, the O 1s spectra of CAO/MS/BFO magnetic photocatalysts are integrated into four key peaks around 533.83–533.99, 531.89–532.31, 530.70–531.05 and 528.87–529.07 eV, which are linked to the adsorption oxygen, oxygen defect of MS, the lattice oxygen CAO and BFO, respectively. 47,71,72…”

“…As illustrated in Table 1, the specific activity of the CAO/MS/BFO photocatalyst is higher than that of other CAO, MS, or BFO-based photocatalysts, suggesting that the CAO/MS/BFO photocatalyst has high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of TC. 71,72,82–84…”

“…With the increase in drug concentration, the photocatalytic activity of CAO/MS/15%BFO magnetic photocatalyst decreases due to the increase in the path length of photons entering the reaction solution. 72,86,87 Therefore, in subsequent photocatalytic experiments, the optimal drug concentration was 100 mg L −1 .…”