Titanosilicate ETS‐10 Molecular Sieve Anchored Silver Nanoparticles for Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Hydrochloride: Synergetic Effect of H2O2 and Ag/ETS‐10 under Visible Light

Herein, a facile and effective photocatalytic method for the degradation of the tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) was proposed. The photocatalyst Ag/ETS-10 was prepared by photoreduction, using cubic-structured EST-10 molecular sieves as the support for the silver nanoparticles. The synthesized photocatalyst Ag/ETS-10 has small characteristic peaks and a chemical shift of Ag, resulting in a redshift. The results of photocatalytic experiments show that H2O2-promoted Ag/ETS-10 exhibits a superior visible-light photocatalytic performance, and the degradation rate of TCH (50 mg L-1) is up to 94.9% within 100 min, which is significantly better than pure ETS-10 (23.9%) and Ag/ETS-10 (26.9%). The reaction rate constant of H2O2-promoted Ag/ETS-10 is 17.75 and 31.55 times of those of ETS- 10 and Ag/ETS-10, respectively. More importantly, the photocatalytic activity of H2O2-promoted Ag/ETS-10 remains stable after four cycles. The outstanding photocatalytic performance is due to the synergistic interaction of H2O2 with Ag/ETS-10 to promote the rapid separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs and enhance the generation of h(+) and center dot O-2(-), radicals. In addition, the presence of silver induces the surface plasmon resonance effect and acts as a good acceptor for photogenerated e in the photocatalytic reaction, enhancing the photocatalytic activities. This work provides a new insight for the design and synthesis of stable and efficient photocatalysts for visible light degradation of antibiotics.