Construction of novel Zn2TiO4/g-C3N4 Heterojunction with efficient photodegradation performance of tetracycline under visible light irradiation

This work presented facile fabrication of carbon nitride (CN)/zinc titanate (ZT) heterojunction by one-step ball milling process for visible light-induced photocatalytic degradation. The phase structures, morphologies, functional groups, and optical properties of the prepared materials were systematically characterized by XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis DRS, and SEM techniques. The ball milling for 10 min significantly improved visible light absorption properties; the as-synthesized ZT/CN catalyst (2.8 eV) showed lower band gap energy than bare ZT (3.2 eV). This result revealed a successful incorporation. The photocatalytic activities of the heterostructure catalysts (ZT/CN) evaluated by degrading tetracycline under visible light irradiation and highest TC removal rate were obtained as 0.0193 min−1 for ZT/CN/5, which was 6.2 times higher than that of bare CN. The most efficient photocatalyst (ZT/CN/5) could be performed three times without any loss of phase. In addition, the heterostructure catalyst was found as promising candidate for efficient photocatalytic degradation of other antibiotics and dye components.