Effect of biochar content produced from reed stems on the structure and photocatalytic activity of ZnO/g-C3N4/biochar nanocomposite

Abstract

In this study, the ternary composite ZnO/g-C₃N₄/seed stem biochar (ZCNBC) was successfully synthesized using a simple hydrolysis method. Research shows that biochar has a significant influence on the structure and photocatalytic activity of the resulting composite materials. It has shown a series of roles such as inhibiting crystal growth, improving specific surface area, narrowing the band gap, and enhancing visible light absorption of ZnO. The resulting photocatalytic composite was used as an effective photocatalyst for the photodegradation of the antibiotic doxycycline (DC) from aqueous solution. The prepared ZCNBC hybrid catalyst was shown to have much higher photocatalytic activity than pure ZnO in the decomposition of DC (10.4 times higher). All synthesized catalysts exhibited extremely high photocatalytic efficiency under visible light; The DC photocatalytic degradation efficiency of ZCNBC can reach 98.1% under visible light. The results show that the prepared catalysts are promising for the degradation of DC from water sources.