One-step hydrothermal synthesis of BiVO4/TiO2/RGO composite with effective photocatalytic performance for the degradation of ciprofloxacin

A reduced graphene oxide (RGO) supported BiVO4/TiO2 nanocomposite with remarkably high efficiency for the photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP) under visible light is synthetized by a simple hydrothermal route. By rationally investigating the influence of RGO content and the pH value of the reaction solution, it is interestingly to uncover that the optimized BiVO4/TiO2/RGO composite with 5% RGO content could achieve a degradation rate of 80.5% within 150 min in the acidic ambient (pH = 5), which is 2.06 times higher than that of BiVO4/TiO2. Photoluminescence spectra (PL) analysis confirms that the recombination of TiO2 semiconductor and the introduction of RGO are essential to boosting the electron transfer and inhibiting the recombination of photo-generated carriers. Additionally, the as-obtained photocatalyst could display outstanding photocatalytic stability, which show negligible change in photodegradation efficiency after 5 cycles. Mechanistic studies reveal that the outstanding photodegradation efficiency is ascribed to the effective electron transfer.