Evaluation of bismuth oxyhalides as degrading agents of the antibiotic norfloxacin in aqueous medium

Abstract

Water contamination by chemicals products poses a significant risk to public health. The development of analytical methods of greater sensitivity has revealed several contaminants of emerging concern, among which the antibiotic norfloxacin (NFX) has been detected.

The use of photocatalysis for environmental decontamination adheres to several green chemistry principles and particularly bismuth oxyhalides, appearing more recently in the literature, have attracted attention due to their optical and electronic properties. This work shows a characterization of the materials used, bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr) and bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) such as particle distribution and size, X-ray diffraction, pore size and surface area, and their ability to remediate the antibiotic norfloxacin in aqueous solution. The results show excellent photocatalytic activity for BiOBr and also excellent adsorptive activity in the case of BIOI, achieving 100% remedial efficiency in both cases.