Activities of BiFeO3/carbon-dots catalysts in piezo-photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin upon light/ultrasonic excitation

Xiaojian Zhang; Zhiqin Zhang; Kexin Long; Honglei Yuan; Xianke Sun

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2024.106770

Activities of BiFeO₃/carbon-dots catalysts in piezo-photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin upon light/ultrasonic excitation

Ultrason Sonochem. 2024 Feb:103:106770. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2024.106770. Epub 2024 Jan 18.

Authors

Xiaojian Zhang¹, Zhiqin Zhang¹, Kexin Long¹, Honglei Yuan¹, Xianke Sun²

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou, 466001, China.
² School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou, 466001, China. Electronic address: sunxianke666@163.com.

Abstract

Designing catalysts that can effectively make use of renewable energy benefits to solve the current challenges of environmental pollution and increasing energy demands. Piezo-photocatalysis that can utilize solar energy and natural vibration-energy has emerged as a "green" technique. In this work, we fabricated BiFeO₃/C nano composites that can harvest solar and vibration energies and degrade organic pollutants. The incorporated carbon quantum dots bring about more efficient visible light absorbance and separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. The piezoelectric polarization further suppresses the recombination of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. The catalysts own higher reaction rates in piezo-photocatalysis and the BiFeO₃/C-0.12 shows the highest degradation efficiency (k-value of 0.0835 min^-1).

Keywords: BiFeO(3)/C; Ciprofloxacin degradation; Nano particles; Piezo-photocatalysis.