Enhancement of g-C3N4 via Acid Treatment for the Degradation of Ciprofloxacin Antibiotic

Muhamad Kamarul Ariffin Ahmad Madzlan, Mohamad Fakhrul Ridhwan Samsudin, Francois Maeght, Coralie Goepp and Suriati Sufian

Abstract

The viability of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) in photocatalytic discipline has been studied before but its extensive usage has been halted due to large band gap energy. Therefore, this study is to enhance the photodegradation efficiency of g-C₃N₄ by treating them with acid. The precursor of synthesizing the photocatalyst, melamine was treated with several acids to determine which acid treatment would yield the best antibiotic ciprofloxacin removal. The melamine was calcined at 550 °C for two hours to produce g-C₃N_4. The experiment outcome was that g-C₃N₄ treated with sulphuric acid have the highest performance with 71.3% of ciprofloxacin removal after 120 minutes under visible light irradiation. FESEM, BET, FTIR, and XRD analysis were also performed on the as-developed catalyst. As for overall result, it is found that the g-C₃N₄ treated with H₂SO₄ exhibited the best ciprofloxacin removal efficiency in comparison to the pristine g-C₃N₄ and g-C₃N₄ treated with HCl and HNO₃.