Abstract
The monitoring and removal of environmental pollutants are vital for the sustainable development of society. Herein, a novel nanocomposite combining silicon nanoparticles and carbon-doped titania, C-TiO(2)/SiNPs, is designed as a fluorescence probe and visible-light photocatalyst to simultaneously monitor and degrade oxytetracycline (OTC). C-TiO(2)/SiNPs emit blue fluorescence, which can be quenched by OTC through inner filter effect. Meanwhile, green fluorescence is turned on upon OTC addition by aggregation-induced emission. Thus, C-TiO(2)/SiNPs successfully act as a fluorescence colorimetric probe for quantitation and semi-quantitation of OTC. Additionally, C-TiO(2)/SiNPs show adorable visible-light photocatalytic activity toward OTC, achieving a removal rate of 93.3% in 30 min. This process is driven by the superoxide radicals, holes and hydroxyl radicals produced by C-TiO(2)/SiNPs under visible light irradiation. The total toxicities obviously reduce after OTC is degraded by C-TiO(2)/SiNPs. The concentration during the OTC degradation can be estimated by naked eyes through the change of fluorescence color, but also precisely quantified by a fluorometer. This study innovatively develops a one-stone-two-birds strategy to achieve simultaneous degradation and in situ real-time detection of OTC, paving a promising paradigm for the highly efficient monitoring and removal of residual drugs.