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The contamination of antibiotics in aqueous environment causes increasing concerns recently. Light-assisted activation of peroxydisulfate (PDS) has been demonstrated as an efficient technology for removal of contamination in water. Herein, a hollow sphere of CuWO4 (h-CuWO4) was employed as a visible light-activated photocatalyst for the activation of PDS, and following with high removal efficiency (98%) of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX). Under visible light irradiation, the degradation rate on hollow structures system is nearly 2 times higher than the traditional solid CuWO4 spheres. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism and detailed pathway of SMX degradation were proposed based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS). This work provides a new feasible way for advanced oxidation processes to remove antibiotics SMX in heterogeneous system, and open up new application possibilities of CuWO4-based materials.

Solar photocatalysis is a clean and sustainable approach for removing atmospheric NO, but suffers from unsatisfactory removal efficiency. Efficient charge separation and surface reaction are critical factors ensuring the efficiency of solar energy conversion by photocatalysts. To achieve efficient charge steering and an enhanced surface reaction, we synthesized a bicomponent photocatalyst consisting of multivalent Ag species embedded in defect-rich twin-brush ZnO (Ag/TB-ZnO) with strong metal-support interaction (SMSI). The optimum Ag/TB-ZnO with silver loading of 2.0 wt.% achieved NO oxidation efficiency of 71.0% under a GHSV of 1,200,000 mL h−1 g−1, and NO3− selectivity of 94.8%. Outstanding stability of up to 4 h was demonstrated. This superior performance was attributed to the enhanced efficacy of charge separation and surface reaction by the SMSI effect, surface plasmon resonance effect of metallic Ag and the efficient activation of oxygen species through vacancy-rich TB-ZnO.