Rational design of α-MnO2/HT-GCN nanocomposite for effective photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin and pernicious activity.

The present study is mainly concerned with the development of cost-efficient composite material utilized to produce one-dimensional manganese oxide (α-MnO₂) nanoparticles coated on two-dimensional graphitic carbon nitrides (HT-GCN) as nanocomposite (α-MnO₂/HT-GCN) for highly efficient CIP degradation. The α-MnO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a simple hydrothermal technique before being decorated on HT-GCN (H denotes protonation and T represents thermal-decomposition–graphitic carbon nitride). Tauc plots were used to calculate the band gap values of the photocatalysts α-MnO₂ (1.74 eV), GCN (2.84 eV), HT-GCN (2.63 eV), and α-MnO₂/HT-GCN (2.31 eV). The mechanism was investigated by various scavengers, particularly isopropanol (^•OH) makes a significant role in the photodegradation process. The degradation percentage for ciprofloxacin was 89.2% and the rate of reaction R² = 0.9913. This study demonstrates a unique method for developing a heterojunction-based nanocomposite of α-MnO₂/HT-GCN, which exhibit better light absorption performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]