Currently, telmisartan (TEL) is globally
employed to reduce high
blood pressure and in the treatment of hypertension. Unused TEL from
hospitals and pharmaceutical industries and its metabolic products
are present in wastewater, which are posing a critical menace to
the environment and modern society. As a result, development of a
durable and high-performance TEL removal method is needed. The design
of a sustainable and robust visible light photocatalyst is a key concern
in the degradation of pharmaceuticals. Herein, a low-cost and green
N-doped graphene aerogel (N-GA) was synthesized using glucose as the
carbon source and ammonium chloride as a nitrogen source via a one-step
pyrolysis technique for the photocatalytic degradation of TEL. N-GA
exhibits a significant photocatalytic activity toward the visible-light-induced
degradation of TEL. Notably, 99.8% of TEL was removed from water within
a time period of 70 min with high recyclability. Moreover, after the
treatment, N-GA is easy to recover without any extra effort or chemical/physical
treatment. The possible photocatalytic mechanism has been elaborately
explained by using radical trap experiments. The driving force for
the ease of formation of radicals or reactive oxygen species is governed
by heteroatoms, and herein, the superoxide is a major ROS for photocatalytic
activity. N-GA can provide new insights into the photocatalytic removal
of emerging pollutants.