Transferring waste of biomass and heavy metal into photocatalysts for hydrogen peroxide activation

The degradation of emerging pollutants such as pharmaceutical and personal care products in water is very important. In this study, visible-light-driven metal-hydrothermal carbon composites are synthesized via the facile hydrothermal process, which have high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of ibuprofen. Catalysts are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer. These photocatalysts exhibit a light absorption range up to 1300 nm, which are better than many metal oxides or sulfides. Ibuprofen can be degraded within 60 min. The effects of the photocatalytic performance on the ibuprofen degradation efficiency have been studied, such as pH, catalyst dosages, the concentration of H₂O₂. Various reactive species are detected, including ·OH, e⁻, h⁺, and ·O₂^–, while the catalytic mechanism shows that e_CB-mediated reactions are essential degradation pathways. Furthermore, metal-HTCC is found to be applicable in real water systems, suggesting this composite is a good candidate photocatalyst for environmental applications.