Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering
>> 2016,
Volume 10,
Issue 2
doi:
10.1007/s11783-014-0753-y
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effective degradation of tetracycline by mesoporous Bi
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Accepted: 2014-11-17
Available online: 2016-02-01
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Abstract
Bi WO was synthesized with a hydrothermal method at different pHs and used for the degradation of tetracycline (TC) in water. The mesoporous Bi WO prepared at pH 1 (BWO-1) displayed the highest adsorption and degradation capacity to TC due to its large surface area and more efficient capacity to separate photogenerated electrons and holes. 97% of TC at 20 mg·L was removed by BWO-1 at 0.5 g·L after 120 min irradiation under simulated solar light. Only 31% of the total organic carbon (TOC) was removed after 360 min irradiation although the TC removal reached 100%, suggesting that TC was mainly transformed to intermediate products rather than completely mineralized. The intermediates were identified by high-performance liquid chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry (HPLC-TOF-MS) and possible photodegradation pathways were proposed.