Efficient photoelectrocatalytic degradation of tylosin on TiO2 nanotube arrays with tunable phosphorus dopants.

• Phosphorus-doped TiO 2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs/P) was synthesized by calcination red phosphorus with TNTAs in sealed ampoule. • TNTAs/P exhibits enhanced photoelectrocatalytic tylosin removal activity. • P dopants could improve light absorption and charge separation in TNTAs. • •OH radicals and holes are the dominant reactive species for tylosin degradation. Photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) degradation of antibiotics residues is one of the most effective strategies for wastewater treatment. TiO 2 has been widely used as an efficient photoelectrode material for pollutant removal. However, the degradation efficiency of UV light-driven TiO 2 -based photoelectrodes is still low. In this study, phosphorus-doped TiO 2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs/P) were fabricated by calcination TNTAs with amorphous red phosphorus in sealed ampoules. By tuning the amount of P dopants, the optimized TNTAs/P(0.75) photoelectrode exhibits excellent PEC degradation performance under the Xenon lamp (100 mW/cm², λ > 300 nm) light irradiation, with 79 % tylosin removal within 250 min.. The TNTAs/P(0.75) photoelectrode also displays about 4-fold photocurrent enhancement than bare TNTAs. It is suggested that the P-doping treatment could improve the light-harvesting ability and accelerate the separation efficiency of photo-induced electron-hole pairs in TNTAs, which benefits the production of •OH radicals and thus leads to the enhancement in tylosin degradation activity. This present work demonstrates a facile approach for improving the PEC degradation efficiency by doping heteroatoms in the photoelectrode. Capsule: P-doped TiO 2 nanotube arrays were fabricated for boosting photoelectrocatalytic tylosin degradation activity due to the enhanced light absorption and charge transfer efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]