ZIF-8 derived hollow CuO/ZnO material for study of enhanced photocatalytic performance

Tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic extensively used in medical and veterinary fields. However, its excess harms the environment and human health. Recently, construction of CuO/ZnO heterojunctions has a very good effect in the treatment of organic matter in water. In this study, we used zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) as initial material to synthesize porous and hollow CuO/ZnO photocatalysts for catalytic degradation of TC. The results show that the synthesized CuO/ZnO has the characteristics of porous hollow polyhedron when the molar ratio of Cu and Zn is 0.1. Obviously, photocatalytic degradation rate was better comparing to CuO/ZnO nanoparticles as well as pure ZnO and CuO particles, respectively, which could reach 87% at 60 min under visible light (lambda > 420 nm) and has good stability. Porous hollow CuO/ZnO composites are very promising for effective and environmentally friendly degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride in water.