In Situ synthesis of regular channel structure PSC-TiO2 with a remarkably photocatalytic degradation tetracycline efficiency

Abstract Incorporating carbon doping and regular channel structure peanut shell carbon-TiO 2 (PSC-TiO 2 ) is a challenge because the carbon is usually amorphous phase and TiO 2 is agglomerated. Here, we propose an in situ synthetic strategy for the regular channel structure PSC-TiO 2 by TiCl 4 hydrolysis method, and the obtained PSC-TiO 2 composites was used for tetracycline (TC) removal. The morphology and structure of as-prepared PSC-TiO 2 composites were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-Vis) techniques. All results confirm the regular channel PSC-TiO 2 synthesized successfully. As a result of unique channel structure the resulting PSC-TiO 2 exhibits remarkably sunlight adsorption-photocatalytic efficiency for the degradation of TC. For 150 mg/L TC solution, the removal efficiency of TC in the PSC-TiO 2 (87.0%) was higher than that in the PSC adsorption (39.4%) and pure TiO 2 (70.7%) within 60 min. The obtained 15%PSC-TiO 2 composite (400 °C, 2h) showed higher light absorption efficiency, C-O-Ti band and regular channel morphological structure, which resulted in the synergistic effect of PSC adsorption and TiO 2 photocatalysis performance, and the current study provides a new insight for regular channel PSC-TiO 2 preparation and application.