Visible light degradation of antibiotics catalyzed by nanoporous carbon/V2O5 nanocomposite: structural, optical and electrochemical properties

Abstract

In this study, nanoporous carbon (NPC) decorated V₂O₅ (NPC/V₂O₅) nanocomposite synthesized by a hydrothermal technique using biomass-derived NPC nanoflakes towards the application of berberine hydrochloride (BH) dye degradation under visible light irradiation. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX), UV–Visible and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Charge transfer resistance was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and liner sweep voltammetry (LSV). XRD studies confirm the orthorhombic crystal structure of NPC/V₂O₅ nanocomposite. FE-SEM and TEM analysis validate their particle-like and sheet-like morphology of V₂O₅ and NPC respectively. Further, UV–visible DRS and PL spectra of the green synthesized NPC/V₂O₅ nanocomposite exhibited a low band-gap and reduced recombination rate compared to the pure counterpart which is better light-absorbing ability in the visible light region. Batch experiments represent the incorporation of NPC and V₂O₅ would lead to an increase the photocatalytic performance of NPC/V₂O₅ toward BH dye degradation. During the photocatalytic reaction, the NPC/V₂O₅ nanocomposite degraded rate around 97.7 % against BH dye within 80 min while pure V₂O₅ degraded 92.5 % of BH dye under same visible light irradiation time. Finally, the cyclic stability experiment exhibits the photocatalyst even stable after five consecutive tests.