Construction of AuNPs/h-BN nanocomposites by using gold as interfacial electron transfer mediator with highly efficient degradation for levofloxacin hydrochloride and hydrogen generation

Abstract Construction of semiconductor-assisted noble metal nanocomposites has been approved as an efficient strategy to achieve promising photocatalysts. In this paper, highly efficient AuNPs/h-BN nanocomposites have been fabricated by loading gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as interfacial electron transfer mediators onto the hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BN). The SEM and HRTEM images, together with XPS analysis revealed that AuNPs were successfully deposited onto the surface of h-BN and the layered heterojunctions were generated between AuNPs and h-BN. The optimum 15%AuNPs/h-BN nanocomposites exhibit dramatically enhanced photocatalytic performance for degradation of levofloxacin hydrochloride with 84.4% removal rate, and hydrogen evolution of 61.15 μmol within 5 h. It is almost 4 and 61 times higher than that of pure h-BN, respectively. In addition, this is the first time using h-BN based material to evaluate the elimination efficiency of levofloxacin hydrochloride. The corresponding enhanced mechanism for 15%AuNPs/h-BN can be attributed to the effective interfacial electron-hole pairs separation and migration between h-BH and AuNPs and its surface Plasmon absorption (SPA). Moreover, the possible decomposition pathways for levofloxacin hydrochloride are proposed according to the UPLC-MS analysis. Herein, we have provided a good example for removing antibiotic residues by using h-BN-based metal nanocomposites towards environmental remediation.