A Facile Fabrication of ZnFe₂O₄/Sepiolite Composite with Excellent Photocatalytic Performance on the Removal of Tetracycline Hydrochloride

The excellent photo-response of ZnFe₂O₄ in the visible light region makes it a promising catalyst, whereas some defects like serious particle agglomeration and easy recombination of photo-generated electron-hole pairs hinder its application. In this work, the ZnFe₂O₄/sepiolite (ZF-Sep) composites were synthesized using a co-precipitation method. The obtained ZF-Sep composites were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XPS, BET, VSM and DRS. Moreover, the photocatalytic performance was evaluated by the tetracycline hydrochloride removal efficiency under simulated visible light illumination. The results displayed that the ZnFe₂O₄ with average sizes about 20 nm were highly dispersed on sepiolite nanofibers. All the composites exhibited better photocatalytic performance than pure ZnFe₂O₄ due to the synergistic effect of the improvement on the agglomeration phenomenon of ZnFe₂O₄ and the reduction on the recombination rate of photo-generated electrons and holes. The optimum removal efficiency was that of the ZF-Sep-11 composite, which reached 93.6% within 3 h. Besides, the composite exhibited an excellent stability and reusability. Therefore, ZF-Sep composite is a promising catalyst for the treatment of wastewater contained antibiotics.