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

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 [rad]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.