Benzotriazole-based structure in porous organic polymer enhancing O2 activation for high-efficient degradation of tetracycline under visible light

[Display omitted] •A novel benzotriazole-based POP was constructed by polymerizing reaction.•The as-prepared POP photocatalyst presents a TC degradation efficiency of 92.12%.•The benzotriazole-based structure can improve the oxygen activation capability of POP. Porous organic polymers (POPs) have emerged as functional materials in photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline (TC) antibiotics but still did not get enough attention on the degradation mechanism and “structure-performance” relationship. It is of great scientific concern to explore the photo-degradation capability of POPs for TC antibiotics under visible light and to reveal their “structure-performance” relationship at the molecular level. Herein, we have constructed a novel benzotriazole-based POP by polymerizing benzotriazole-based structure with melamine. The photo-degradation test results indicate that the POP with benzotriazole-based structure presents an excellent photocatalytic performance with a high TC removal efficiency of 92.12 % and good recyclability. The corresponding pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic constant of benzotriazole-based POP is 6.8 times that of benzene-based one. Such excellent performance of benzotriazole-based POP can be attributed to the physical/chemical property contributions of benzotriazole-based structure to POP, e.g., the narrow energy bandwidth (2.48 eV) for producing more photo-generated electrons/holes, the small charge transfer resistance for circumventing recombination of photo-generated electrons/holes, and the large number of O2− radicals converted from high-activated O2 that produced by the interactions between photocatalyst and O2 under visible light irradiation. This strategy of introducing the benzotriazole-based structure into POP opens new avenues to develop next-generation advanced photocatalysts for removing TC antibiotics from wastewater.