Preparation of Si doped molecularly imprinted TiO₂ photocatalyst and its degradation to antibiotic wastewater

ABSTRACT

TiO₂, molecularly imprinted TiO₂ (TiO₂/OTC) and a novel Si doped molecularly imprinted TiO₂ (TiO₂/SiO₂/OTC) nano photocatalytic materials were prepared by liquid phase deposition method. The products were characterized by XRD and SEM. The photocatalytic activities of the samples were evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline wastewater under a xenon lamp irradiation. The results showed that TiO₂/SiO₂/OTC and TiO₂/OTC could improve both the photocatalytic activity and the molecular recognition ability, while the photocatalytic activities of TiO₂/SiO₂/OTC sample was more effective than TiO₂/OTC sample with 5 times reuse. The photocatalytic activity of TiO₂/SiO₂/OTC photocatalyst sample had a greater improvement and its photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline wastewater reached 80.79% in 120 minute reaction.

Keywords:

• Molecularly imprinted photocatalyst
• photocatalytic degradation
• antibiotic wastewater

Acknowledgment

The authors are very grateful to Dr. Yaqian Zhao, from University College Dublin for his English editing of the paper.

Funding

This study was financially supported by Shaanxi natural science fund (2014JM7256), Shaanxi construction department science and technology project (2014-K28), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51108437), the special transport technological fund for west of China (2012318361110), Chang'an university students innovation program (201510710073) and the China scholarship council (CSC No.201406565016).