Investigation on visible-light photocatalytic performance and mechanism of zinc peroxide for tetracycline degradation and Escherichia coli inactivation

In this study, zinc peroxide (ZnO2) with broad energy gap was firstly used for visible-light-induced photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline (TC) and inactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli). A small amount of ZnO2 (10 mg) could efficiently degrade 100 mL of 50 mg/L TC in a wide pH range (4–12), and the degradation performance was rarely suppressed by common matrix species and natural water sources. Also, 100 mg/L ZnO2 could inactivate around 7-log E. coli cells within 60 min under visible-light irradiation. Quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) results confirmed that superoxide radical (•O2−) and singlet oxygen (1O2) were the main reactive oxygen species (ROS), which were attributed to the self-sensitization of TC and the photoexcitation of released H2O2 under the catalysis of Zn(OH)2 from the hydrolysis of partial ZnO2, respectively. The pathways of TC degradation and processes of visible-light-induced TC degradation and E. coli inactivation were proposed and deduced in detail. This work presented the enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activities of ZnO2 for antibiotic degradation and bacterial inactivation, and provided a deep insight into the mechanisms of visible-light-induced TC degradation and E. coli inactivation over ZnO2. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.