Enhanced Photodegradation Ability of Antibiotics with Composite Based on V2O5 under Visible Light

In this paper, V2O5 combining with g-C3N4 were obtained to reduce charge recombination rate between electrons and holes in semiconductors. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicated certain interaction between V2O5 and g-C3N4 in the V2O5/g-C3N4 heterojunction. In addition, the reducing in recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes was confirmed via the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. The photocatalytic activities of the as-synthesized materials were investigated by the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) under visible light. The V2O5/g-C3N4 heterojunction is more active than pure V2O5 and g-C3N4. The TC degradation efficiency by V2O5/g-C3N4 photocatalyst under visible light was 82.18% after 180 minutes. The improvement in photocatalytic activity of V2O5/g-C3N4 can be attributed to the reduction of recombination rate of photogenerated electron and hole pairs.