Novel Cu-Fe/LDH@BiOI1.5 photocatalyst effectively degrades tetracycline under visible light irradiation

Novel Cu-Fe/[email protected]1.5 composite photocatalyst with a flower-like structure was successfully designed and prepared by a simple hydrothermal synthesis method. A series of characterization such as XRD, XPS, SEM, etc, have adopted to analyze the structural performance, visible light response and photoelectric properties of this composite photocatalyst. The test of photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline showed that the degradation rate of 1:10 Cu-Fe/[email protected]1.5 composite with p-n heterojunction can reach 73% in 75 min, which indicates the better degradation performance than Cu-Fe/LDH and pure BiOI1.5. In addition, the key active substances, ·O2– and h+, were obtained in the capture experiment. Finally, the possible mechanism of tetracycline degradation was deduced. The completion of this work can achieve the control of water pollution to further optimize the surrounding environment.