Construction of AgVO3/UiO-66 heterojunction for enhanced degradation of tetracycline

Photocatalytic technology with metal organic framework based heterojunction has been developed the potential application to solve the overuse of tetracycline, which has brought negative effect on the ecosystems and health of life. AgVO3/UiO-66 heterojunction has been constructed with a facile preparation through decorated nano-rod AgVO3 on the surface of UiO-66, characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, XPS, UV-vis DRS, photoluminescence, ESR, photocurrent and EIS analyses. AgVO3/UiO-66 heterojunction exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activities compared with pristine AgVO3 and UiO-66 because of the improved separation of the photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Degradation rate constant of AgVO3/UiO-66 is three and nine times higher than those of AgVO3 and UiO-66, respectively. The dominating active species have been proved to be the center dot O2- and center dot OH radicals in the photocatalyst. Besides, the possible mechanism of tetracycline degradation over AgVO3/UiO-66 system is proposed.