MXene as a Superior Charge-Transport Layer in an MXene–BiFeO₃–ZnO Nanocomposite for Photocatalytic Disintegration of Antacids

In recent times, the environmental and pure water crisis requires many types of scientific evaluation to handle the issues caused by different pharmaceutical drugs. The current work involves the synthesis of ternary hybrid nanomaterials based on Ti₃C₂MXene–BiFeO₃ (BFO)–ZnO and their applications as photocatalysts for the disintegration of antacids. The introduction of the two-dimensional (2D) MXene layer in the BFO–ZnO heterostructures not only creates additional reaction hotspots but also enhances charge-transport properties through favorable band alignments at the interface as revealed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Therefore, the ternary nanocomposite device exhibits enhanced photocurrent and improved photocatalytic degradation performance. The degradation efficiency of the most commercially used antacid, pantoprazole, can reach up to 92.05% and reveals good stability and an apparent quantum yield of 1.7%. Furthermore, possible degradation pathways of the antacids and degradation mechanisms were proposed by identifying degraded products using high-resolution mass spectrometry. This work realizes the objective of formulating a metal oxide-based hybrid nano-photocatalyst supported on a 2D MXene, which provides an efficient way to prepare low-cost and high-efficiency heterojunctions to disintegrate pharmaceutical contaminants from real water matrices.