A ternary-hybrid as efficiently photocatalytic antibiotic degradation and electrochemical pollutant detection

The feasibility of BCN-200/rGO ternary hybrid used as a photocatalyst for antibiotic degradation as well as an electrochemical 4-nitrophenol sensor. [Display omitted] •Dual functional 2D ternary hybrid was synthesized via simple hydrothermal route.•BCN-200/rGO hybrid revealed high photocatalytic ciprofloxacin degradation efficiency.•2D ternary hybrid was fabricated as an electrochemical sensor to detect 4-nitrophenol.•BCN-200/rGO hybrid exhibited high performance on environment remediation and pollutant sensing. Herein, we synthesized a bi-function hybrid material and investigated the dynamic nature of synergy between the individual components of the hybrid and its application aspects in detail. The diverse nature of 2D-ternary hybrid could be exploited as a photocatalyst as well as an electrochemical sensor. Plate-like Bi2WO6 was hybridized with mesh-like g-C3N4 structure and subsequently rGO being loaded into it via simple hydrothermal route. Based on room temperature EPR spectra, we could interpret the inactivity of Bi2WO6 and significant activity of 2D-ternary hybrid. The hybrids were evaluated based on the photocatalytic degradation of antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP). Bi2WO6/g-C3N4/rGO hybrid yielded 90% degradation in 110 min while CIP photolysis only yield 4.3%. Mechanism of photocatalytic degradation was investigated via scavenger experiments which gave away the reactive radicals responsible. To investigate the effect of carrier lifetime on photocatalytic ability, time resolved fluorescence life (TRFL) experiments were performed. The relationship between reducibility and enhanced photocatalytic ability of the materials was studied via hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR) measurement. Furthermore, for elaborating application of the synthesized 2D structured ternary hybrid, its electrochemical ability towards 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) sensing was also studied. An electrochemical sensitive electrode was fabricated to evaluate sensing properties towards 4-NP. To study the electrode kinetics on 4-NP solution, varying scan rate was used via the cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis. The fabricated BCN-200/rGO electrode delivered promising sensing properties with excellent sensitivity of 12.86 μA.μM−1.cm−2 in range of 0.2–100 μM. Hence, the synthesized 2D-ternary hybrid possesses great potential applications in the field of photocatalysis as well as electrochemical sensor.