Abstract
Photocatalytic induction of electron/hole recombination, surface property and light response ability effectively enhance the photocatalytic activity of nanomaterial. In this work, the effective charge carrier separating Sn/Mn–ZnFe2O4–CdFe2O4–Ag3PO4 Quantum dots (M/SZFO–CFO–AP QDs) was fabricated for photocatalytic degradation of doxycycline (doxy) antibiotic. The result showed enhanced photocatalytic activity of doxy and the degradation efficiency of doxy was about 98.8% in short span of time. The calculated WH plot and urbach energy of prepared photocatalyst exhibited evidence for the prevalence of point defects and its contribution to efficient charge separation and transferability. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal was found to be 98.9%, which depicts the complete mineralization of doxy. The synergetic charge transfer of n-p-n heterojunction enables the effective removal of doxy under visible light irradiation. Further, the genotoxicity study was determined by interacting the SZFO–CFO–AP QDs with Allium Cepa. The results depict that SZFO–CFO–AP QDs show lower toxicity level and there were no trace of defective mitotic phases and micro nuclei. Further, the progression and development of bean plant was determined after treating with prepared nanomaterials and the result showed the enhanced growth in SZFO–CFO–AP QDs treated bean plant compared to the counterparts. Therefore, the prepared SZFO–CFO–AP QDs was can be used as an environmental friendly photocatalyst for effective treatment of antibiotic present in the water bodies.
[Display omitted]
•Enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for the effective degradation of doxycycline.•Self-Fenton induced efficient photocatalytic degradation of doxycycline.•Enhanced photogeneration of .•OH, •O2 for the effective photodegradation of doxycycline.•An ecofriendly and non-genotoxic material for environmental remediation.