Investigation on Tetracycline degradation and bactericidal properties of binary and ternary ZnO/NiO/g-C3N4 composites prepared by a facile co-precipitation method

In this work, a facile co-precipitation method was adopted for the preparation of binary ZnO/g-C3N4, NiO/g-C3N4 and ZnO/NiO composites and ternary ZnO/NiO/g-C3N4 composites. The structural, optical, morphological and compositional analyses were investigated by various characterization techniques. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared composites was analyzed against Tetracycline (TC) under visible light irradiation. The optimized ZnO/NiO/g-C3N4 photocatalysts were found to cause superior TC degradation efficiency of 91.49% within 60 min with pseudo-first order kinetics value of 0.05356 min−1. From scavenger’s experiment, it is revealed that •OH and •O2- species are core factors for the photocatalytic TC degradation. After three recycles, the ZnO/NiO/g-C3N4 composites resulted in 88.76% TC degradation efficiency indicating its advanced photocatalytic ability and high stability. Additionally, bactericidal activity was also analyzed against various bacteria. The ternary mixtures provide moderate bactericidal impact against bacteria. The present work fulfills its primary role on antibiotic degradation and antimicrobial activity with superior performance.