Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of TC-HCl by Morphology Regulation of Ga<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Nanostructures
Mingxin Ren, Jizhou Yang, Zhiyuan Chen, Zhi Wan, Peilin Zuo, Zhenghang Tian, Zhigang Liu, Feng Teng, Peng Hu, Haibo Fan
Abstract
Tetracycline antibiotic contaminants have attracted more and more attention due to their high toxicity and the difficulty of their natural decomposition. Here, we have successfully regulated the morphologies of Ga 2 O 3 photocatalysts (Ga 2 O 3 QDs, Ga 2 O 3 hollow spheres, and Ga 2 O 3 micrometer rods) through a simple solvothermal and hydrothermal method and investigated their photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl). It was found that Ga 2 O 3 QDs showed the best photocatalytic performance due to their large specific surface area (61.1838 m 2 g –1 ), wide bandgap (4.62 eV), etc. After the preparation conditions had been optimized, the Ga 2 O 3 QDs synthesized at 240 °C and 10 h exhibited the best performance in degrading TC-HCl; after 500 W xenon lamp irradiation for 20 min, the degradation efficiency can reach 99% and the degradation rate reached 0.2988 min –1 . By trapping experiments, the main active substances in the degradation of TC-HCl by Ga 2 O 3 were identified as a superoxide radical ( • O 2 ) and a hole (h + ). This study provides a new idea of catalyst morphology regulation and a new method for efficient photocatalytic degradation of TC-HCl.