SYNTHESIS OF WO3 PHOTOCATALYST APPLYING FOR THE TREATMENT OF ANTIBIOTIC IN WATER

Abstract

In this paper, WO3 was fabricated by hydrothermal method using sodium tungstate dihydrate
(Na2WO4.2H2O) along with citric acid and hydrochloric acid. The as-prepared samples were
characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Infrared spectroscopy (IR), Ultraviolet–visible diffuse
reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis-DRS), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Energy-dispersive
X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The photocatalytic performance of WO3 photocatalyst was evaluated by the
degradation of amoxicillin (AMX) antibiotic. Results show that, photocatalytic degradation efficiency
of AMX under visible light irradiation reaches 36,64% after 180 min. The used WO3, which had Ebg of
2,78 eV, would absorb incident visible light to produce a certain amount of electron and hole pairs.