Visible light degradation of antibiotics catalyzed by nanoporous carbon/V2O5 nanocomposite: structural, optical and electrochemical properties

•It exhibits a maximum photocatalytic activity of NPC/V2O5 nanocomposite around 97.7 % against berberine hydrochloride (BH) dye.•Band gap of V2O5 NPs is as 2.69 eV and NPC/V2O5 nanocomposite is 2.33 eV, the reduced band gap helpful for photocatalytic applications.•EIS and LSV studies confirm the improve charge-career separation of NPC/V2O5 compare than pure V2O5. In this study, nanoporous carbon (NPC) decorated V2O5 (NPC/V2O5) nanocomposite synthesized by a hydrothermal technique using biomass-derived NPC nanoflakes towards the application of berberine hydrochloride (BH) dye degradation under visible light irradiation. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX), UV–Visible and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Charge transfer resistance was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and liner sweep voltammetry (LSV). XRD studies confirm the orthorhombic crystal structure of NPC/V2O5 nanocomposite. FE-SEM and TEM analysis validate their particle-like and sheet-like morphology of V2O5 and NPC respectively. Further, UV–visible DRS and PL spectra of the green synthesized NPC/V2O5 nanocomposite exhibited a low band-gap and reduced recombination rate compared to the pure counterpart which is better light-absorbing ability in the visible light region. Batch experiments represent the incorporation of NPC and V2O5 would lead to an increase the photocatalytic performance of NPC/V2O5 toward BH dye degradation. During the photocatalytic reaction, the NPC/V2O5 nanocomposite degraded rate around 97.7 % against BH dye within 80 min while pure V2O5 degraded 92.5 % of BH dye under same visible light irradiation time. Finally, the cyclic stability experiment exhibits the photocatalyst even stable after five consecutive tests.