Photocatalytic degradation is a sustainable technique for reducing the environmental hazards created by the overuse of antibiotics in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Herein, a layer of MoS₂/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite is introduced to zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) nanoparticles to form a “particle-embedded-layered” structure. Thus, a narrow band gap (2.8 eV) starts developing, deliberated as a core photodegradation component. Under optimization, a high photocatalytic activity of 20 mg/L TC at pH 3 with ZrO₂@MoS₂/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite was achieved with 94.8% photocatalytic degradation in 90 min. A photocatalytic degradation rate constant of 0.0230 min^–1 is determined, which is 2.3 times greater than the rate constant for bare ZrO₂ NPs. The superior photocatalytic activity of ZrO₂@MoS₂/g-C₃N₄ is due to the dual charge-transfer channel between the MoS₂/g-C₃N₄ and ZrO₂ nanoparticles, which promotes the formation of photogenerated e^–/h⁺ pairs. Charge recombination produces many free electron–hole pairs, which aid photocatalyst reactions by producing superoxide and hydroxyl radicals via electron–hole pair generation. The possible mechanistic routes for TC were investigated in-depth, as pointed out by the liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) investigation. Overall, this work shows that photocatalysis is a feasible sorbent approach for environmental antibiotic wastewater treatment.

The development of noble metal-anchored semiconductors for photocatalytic processes is now garnering interest for potential application to toxic pollutants as well as antibiotic degradation. Herein, we report novel Ag@p-g-C₃N₄–Bi₂MoO₆ nanocomposites synthesized by facile hydrothermal and calcination methods with a size of about 50 nm, exhibiting superior photocatalytic activity for charge separation. The resulting nanocomposites were evaluated by various physiochemical techniques such as X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The charge transfer photogenerated carriers were confirmed by photoluminescence spectra and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The anchoring of Ag nanoparticles over p-g-C₃N₄/Bi₂MoO₆ decreased the band gap energy from 2.67 to 2.48 eV, to exhibit an abnormal increase in absorption of light towards the visible light region. The degradation performance of the nanocomposites in terms of antibiotic ciprofloxacin and rhodamine B degradation efficiency was measured 85 and 99.7% respectively. The superoxide radical anion ˙O₂ ⁻ played a significant role throughout the entire degradation process. Focusing on the probable mechanism based on the desirable results, the present work follows the heterostructure mechanism. Moreover, this work features the feasible applications of Ag@p-g-C₃N₄–Bi₂MoO₆ as a modified photocatalyst in the treatment of both domestic and industrial waste water.