AUTHOR=Osin Oluwatomiwa A. , Yu Tianyu , Cai Xiaoming , Jiang Yue , Peng Guotao , Cheng Xiaomei , Li Ruibin , Qin Yao , Lin Sijie 

TITLE=Photocatalytic Degradation of 4-Nitrophenol by C, N-TiO2: Degradation Efficiency vs. Embryonic Toxicity of the Resulting Compounds

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00192

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2018.00192

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>The photocatalytic activity of TiO<sub>2</sub> based photocatalysts can be improved by structural modification and elemental doping. In this study, through rational design, one type of carbon and nitrogen co-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> (C, N-TiO<sub>2</sub>) photocatalyst with mesoporous structure was synthesized with improved photocatalytic activity in degrading 4-nitrophenol under simulated sunlight irradiation. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the C, N-TiO<sub>2</sub> was much higher than the anatase TiO<sub>2</sub> (A-TiO<sub>2</sub>) based on absorbance and HPLC analyses. Moreover, using zebrafish embryos, we showed that the intermediate degradation compounds generated by photocatalytic degradation of 4-nitrophenol had higher toxicity than the parent compound. A repeated degradation process was necessary to render complete degradation and non-toxicity to the zebrafish embryos. Our results demonstrated the importance of evaluating the photocatalytic degradation efficiency in conjunction with the toxicity assessment of the degradation compounds.</p>