Preparation and photo-electrocatalytic performance of Ag-Ti3+-TiO2 nanocone

Abstract

The overuse of antibiotics has caused persistent pollution to the environment，and photo-electrocatalysis is an environmentally friendly and efficient technology for degrading antibiotics，in which the design of photoelectrodes is particularly important. To improve the rate of antibiotic degradation，Ag-Ti3+-TiO2 nanocone composite photoelectrode was prepared by electrochemical reduction and photoreduction methods. Then it was used to simulate the photo-electrocatalytic degradation of tetracycline under visible light irradiation to investigate its photocatalytic performance. The results showed that the composite electrode effectively suppressed the complexation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and exhibited a lower charge transfer resistance to improve the photo-electrocatalytic performance due to the Ti3+ self-doping and the local surface plasmon resonance effect of Ag nanoparticles. The composite photoelectrode degraded 87.9% of tetracycline after 90 min under visible light irradiation，and the degradation rate was maintained at 82.5% after 5 cycles. These results indicated that the Ag-Ti3+-TiO2 nanocone composite photoelectrode had high degradation efficiency，good stability and sustainable recyclability，and was expected to achieve efficient and environmentally friendly photo-electrocatalytic degradation of antibiotics.

Keywords

• photo-electrocatalysis
• tio2
• tetracycline
• visible light