Abstract
The supper dissemination of antibiotic waste in water resources has exponentially progressed the vital water and soil pollution that affect human health and the environment. Consequently, there have been several types of research anticipated for the green mineralization of such pollutants. Herein, we intended a surfactant-aided sol-gel formation of lanthanum-doped sodium tantalate (LNTO) nanocrystals. The synthesized 13 nm averaged-size perovskite LNTO nanocrystals were responsive to visible-light irradiation by incorporation of 4.4–5.2 nm oxide nanoparticles, namely Bi2O3, CdO, Fe2O3, and CuO at 4.0 wt% through coprecipitation. The formed nanomaterials unveiled mesostructured surface textures with specific surface areas of 199–229 m2 g−1. The obtained nanoceramics were employed for the mineralization of 10 ppm of ciprofloxacin antibiotic (CPF) as an emerging antibiotic waste in water under visible light irradiation. The CuO-incorporated LNTO exhibited the best photocatalytic oxidation of CPF after 120 min compared with other oxides with an excellent photoreaction rate of 0.0343 min−1 which is 49 times higher than the pure LNTO. The 2.0 gL−1 CuO/LNTO-dose achieved the full photooxidation of CPF at an oxidation speed of 0.0738 min −1 within just 1.0 h of visible light irradiation and magnificent regeneration ability. This enhanced activity of CuO/LNTO is regarded as significant light absorption and a bandgap energy reduction to 2.12 eV. Besides that, the heterojunction between CuO and LNTO amended the photogenerated carrier mobility and separation as concluded from the photoluminescence and photocurrent exploration. This comparative work suggests the proper design of low bandgap oxide decoration of solution-based perovskite oxide photocatalysts for promoting the visible-light mineralization of antibiotics in water.
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•Synthesis of Bi2O3, CdO, Fe2O3, and CuO-incorporated La-doped NaTaO3.•Metal oxide addition reduced bandgap, charge recombination and harvests more light.•Photooxidation of ciprofloxacin is superior utilizing CuO/LNTO at 49 times faster rate.•Dose optimization of CuO/LNTO mineralize ciprofloxacin after 60 min.•Possible regeneration ability of CuO/LNTO after five runs with 94% efficiency.