Mechanism of nitrogen-fluoride co-doped TiO2/bentonite composites removing tetracycline: A study in the co-doping ratio

N-doped and N-F co-doped TiO2/bentonite composites were synthesized via the gel-sol method. The morphology, structure and surface charge of the composite before and after adsorption were used to determine the effect N/F doping ratio on TC removal. The results showed that, compared with undoped samples, the TC adsorption on N doped composites was reduced by 24.44% on average. N-F co-doping significantly increased the TC adsorption when the Ti-N-F molar ratio was 1:1: 0.01, reaching a maximum TC adsorption of 64.00 mmol/kg(-1). The coverage of the N doped TiO2 increases as the N doping ratio increases; the specific surface area increased by 2.03 % on average, but the number of surface negative charges decreased by 36.24 % on average. FT-IR results confirmed that N doping reduced the number of -OH groups on the N-doped composites. Additionally, fluorination of N-F co-doped TiO2 and bentonite surfaces inhibits hydrogen bonding and pi-pi interactions between the TC and the composites. As the N doping ratio increased, the coverage of N-F co-doped TiO2 on the composite surface increased, resulting in the TC adsorption decrease with the increases N doping ratio.