Pd nanoparticles decorated BiVO 4 pine architectures for photocatalytic degradation of sulfamethoxazole.

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) has been extensively detected in wastewater treatment plant effluents and surface water. Because of its potential risks to ecology and health, treatment for eliminating SMX is urgently required. In this study, we report the application of Pd nanoparticles decorated on BiVO ₄ pine architecture for the photocatalytic degradation of SMX. The results showed that the barer BiVO ₄ and Pd-BiVO ₄ eliminated SMX under visible-light irradiation. After 210 min of irradiation, 98.8% of SMX was substantially eliminated by Pd-BiVO ₄ , whereas bare BiVO ₄ can degraded approximately 36.3% of SMX. Pd-BiVO ₄ also exhibited a high mineralization rate (84% of total organic carbon (TOC) removal) compared to bare BiVO ₄ (51% of TOC removal). Through three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectra, SMX with high fluorescence intensity can be degraded to non-fluorescence intermediate products, further confirming the high mineralization of SMX over Pd-BiVO ₄ catalyst. Well-dispersed Pd nanoparticles on the {040} facet of BiVO ₄ pine architecture can support the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers because of the formation of the Schottky junction at the Pd-BiVO ₄ interface. Besides, the active species trapping tests indicated that ^• O ₂ ^- and h ⁺ radicals dominate SMX photodegradation over Pd-BiVO ₄ . The main degradation intermediates of SMX in the reaction solution was also identified through ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis. This investigation can provide insight into designing metallic/semiconductor junctions for antibiotic elimination in water media.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)