Abstract
The ecosystem and ecological balance have been threatened by continuous anthropogenic interference, unplanned exploitation of resources and rapid progress in agricultural and industrial development. The most poised solutions to tackle environmental pollution and huge energy demands are resource management and detoxification techniques. Photocatalysis as a green technology has the potential to bring the high-performance water detoxification at affordable rates using solar active advanced materials with sustainable approach. This work focusses on development of rationally designed sustainable hybrid Ag2S/Bi2S3/g-C3N4 heterojunctions for visible light and solar light powered degradation and mineralization of sulfamethoxazole as pharmaceutical pollutant from water. The sample with optimized ratios was able to degrade 97.4% of sulfamethoxazole in 90 min of visible light exposure and retaining of high activity under the Sun. The effect of ions presents in water and water matrix was studied for potential use in practical conditions. The scavenging experiments reveal that both O-2(center dot-) and OH center dot radicals are active species responsible for removal. The dual Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism was predicted for high-performance antibiotic removal with effective protection of high potential bands. A pollutant degradation mechanism was also predicted according to the intermediates detected in Liquid chromatography-Mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. In addition, presence of metallic Ag as found in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) findings improve the charge separation and generation of reactive oxygen species dramatically. Such highly visible and solar active materials synthesis provides an effective strategy for removal of pollutants and environmental detoxification.