Photocatalytic degradation of levofloxacin in aqueous phase using Ag/AgBr/BiOBr microplates under visible light

Abstract

Ag/AgBr/BiOBr microplates have been synthesized by precipitation method. The phase, structure, morphology and optical properties were explored by the XRD, XPS, FT-IR, FESEM, DRS and PL techniques. The band gap for Ag/AgBr/BiOBr microplates has been found to be 2.33 eV which is significant in enhancing the visible light induced photocatalysis. The synthesized catalyst was consisted of tetragonal phase of BiOBr with diffraction peaks of Ag/AgBr. About 74% of levofloxacin (10 mg/L, pH 8) was degraded with Ag/AgBr/BiOBr (1 g/L) under 90 min of irradiation. The photocatalytic degradation of levofloxacin was found to be fit with pseudo first order kinetics. The results revealed that modification of BiOBr with Ag/AgBr leads to an increase in the photocatalytic activity under visible light which may be ascribed to less e−-h+ recombination. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd