Fullerene C60-integrated Sr0.25H1.5Ta2O6-x·H2O heterostructures enabling high-efficiency tetracycline drug degradation

Photocatalysis is an efficient strategy to deal with environmental pollution, but traditional photocatalysts commonly still suffers from rapid charge recombination, poor visible light utilization and sluggish surface catalytic kinetics. We hypothesize that the synergistic integration of oxygen vacancies with a molecular electron-acceptor can effectively modulate the electronic structure and interfacial charge transfer of wide-bandgap semiconductors. This study demonstrates a one-step controllable hydrothermal synthesis of defect-engineered Sr 0.25 H 1.5 Ta 2 O 6-x ·H 2 O and its C 60 -modified composites to boost tetracycline degradation. Among the as-synthesized composites, C 60 /Sr 0.25 H 1.5 Ta 2 O 6-x ·H 2 O-5.0% achieved the highest photocatalytic activity, exhibiting a pseudo-first-order kinetic constant of 0.02886 min⁻ 1 , which is 2.63 times higher than that of the unmodified Sr 0.25 H 1.5 Ta 2 O 6 ·H 2 O, and it also maintains high activity in various types of waste-water. This high activity is ascribed to the dual functions of C 60 as electron-trapping centers to promot charge separation and visible-light harvesting. Furthermore, radical trapping experiments confirmed that superoxide radicals (·O 2 ⁻ ) and holes (h⁺) are the dominant active species, supporting a mechanism in which photogenerated electrons drive O 2 to form ·O 2 ⁻ while holes participate in direct oxidation. Overall, our study provides a promising strategy for the rational design of high-efficiency photocatalytic systems via synergistic engineering of light harvesting and interfacial charge transfer kinetics. Download: Download high-res image (174KB) Download: Download full-size image