

FOLLOWUS
College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Corresponding author. E-mail address: fqmeng19@163.com (F. Meng).
Received:15 July 2025,
Revised:2025-09-07,
Accepted:10 September 2025,
Online First:08 November 2025,
Published:2026-02
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Yang Lili, Zhao Wenxuan, Xu Hongwei, et al. Mechanism insights into radical driven antibiotic degradation and green H2O2 production of Al2O3/g-C3N5 piezocatalyst[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 90(2): 121-134.
The widespread presence of antibiotics in the environment has raised significant public health concerns
as it leads to the appearance of antibiotic-resistant genetic elements and bacteria. In this study
a novel Al
2
O
3
/g-C
3
N
5
composite piezocatalyst was synthesized
via
a two-step thermal polymerization method
aiming to enhance the efficiency of piezocatalytic degradation of tetracycline (TC) and
in-situ
hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) generation. The Al
2
O
3
modification significantly improved the piezoelectric properties
charge separation efficiency
and catalytic activity of g-C
3
N
5
. Under ultrasonic vibration
the composite achieved a H
2
O
2
production rate of 582.28 μmol·g
-1
·h
-1
and a TC degradation rate of 94% within 40 min
maintaining 86% efficiency after four cycles. Quenching experiment and EPR spectroscopy verified the key roles of·OH
https://html.publish.founderss.cn/rc-pub/api/common/picture?pictureId=108582925&type=
https://html.publish.founderss.cn/rc-pub/api/common/picture?pictureId=108582925&type=small
https://html.publish.founderss.cn/rc-pub/api/common/picture?pictureId=108582925&type=middle
h
+
and e -in the degradation mechanism. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further elucidated the reactive sites on the TC molecule. Under ultrasonic mechanical vibration conditions
the catalytic performance of the catalyst in pressure generation was systematically evaluated
with a focus on its hydrogen peroxide production capacity and degradation performance for TC. The Al
2
O
3
/g-C
3
N
5
catalyst also demonstrated broad-spectrum degradation capability against various antibiotics and excellent antibacterial activity against
E.
coli
. This work provides an effective strategy for designing high-performance piezocatalysts for environmental remediation and sustainable wastewater treatment.
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