Rapid synthesis of Ti-MCM-41 by microwave-assisted hydrothermal method towards photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline

This study employed microwave-assisted hydrothermal method to synthesize Ti-MCM-41, which are mesoporous materials with a high surface area and excellent photocatalytic ability. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) were employed. The XRD findings showed that Ti-MCM-41 exhibited a peak at 2θ of 2.2°, which was attributed to the hexagonal MCM-41 structure. The BET (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller) results agreed with the TEM findings that Ti-MCM-41 has a pore size of about 3–5 nm and a high surface area of 883 m2/g. FTIR results illustrated the existence of Si–O–Si and Si–O–Ti bonds in Ti-MCM-41. The appearance of Ti 2p peaks in the XPS results confirmed the FTIR findings that the Ti was successfully doped into the MCM-41 structure. Zeta (ζ)-potential results indicated that the iso-electric point (IEP) of Ti-MCM-41 was at about pH 3.02. In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline (OTC) at different pH was investigated under Hg lamp irradiation (wavelength 365 nm). The rate constant (K′obs) for OTC degradation was 0.012 min− 1 at pH 3. Furthermore, TOC (total organic carbon) and high resolution LC–MS (liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry) analyses were conducted to elucidate the possible intermediate products and degradation pathway for OTC. The TOC removal efficiency of OTC degradation was 87.0%, 74.4% and 50.9% at pH 3, 7 and 10, respectively. LC–MS analysis results showed that the degradation products from OTC resulted from the removal of functional groups from the OTC ring.

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