Zinc ferrite-graphitic carbon nitride nanohybrid for photo-catalysis of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrate a facile synthesis of 2D–2D hybrids of spinel zinc ferrite and graphitic carbon nitride (ZFCN) 2D sheets by a simple refluxing method at 80 °C and their characterization by TEM and SEM microscopy, Raman, XPS and FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and magnetic measurements using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The as-synthesized ZFCN hybrid exhibits significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic molecules under UV-light irradiation and ∼95% degradation efficiency. Total organic carbon (TOC) estimations hint at ∼80% mineralization for CIP molecules. Interestingly, the ZFCN nanosheets, being ferromagnetic, exhibited excellent retrievability without any significant loss of activity even after seven reaction cycles. The degradation reaction is confirmed to follow pseudo-first-order kinetics. Liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LCMS) measurements indicated intermediates and also established the reaction pathways. Individual binding energies of GCN and GCN/antibiotic molecules in the gas phase were calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) method to support our experimental data and to better understand the interaction of the catalyst and the antibiotic.