The persistence of tetracycline (TC) in aquatic environments necessitates the development of efficient photocatalysts. This work explores the photocatalytic potential of a defect-engineered pyrochlore solid solution, Y2-xTi2- x ZnxO7-5x/2 (YTZ), for this application. The YTZ material is characterized by intrinsic oxygen vacancies, which result from the aliovalent substitution of Ti4+ by Zn2+. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that these pre-existing defects play a crucial role in photocatalysis by acting as charge-trapping sites, effectively suppressing electron-hole recombination. Structural analyses confirmed the formation of a single-phase cubic pyrochlore where increasing Zn content systematically narrowed the optical band gap from 3.25 Y2Ti2O7 (YTZ0) to 3.10 eV the YTZ0.25 composition. The engineered defects act as crucial charge-trapping sites, effectively suppressing electron-hole recombination. This directly resulted in significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity. The optimized YTZ0.25 composition achieved 76 % TC degradation in 180 min, far surpassing the pristine material. The catalyst also showed excellent stability and reusability over four consecutive cycles (60.45 %). This work establishes aliovalent substitution in pyrochlores as a powerful and direct pathway to tune electronic properties and design efficient, defect-driven photocatalysts.
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