Photocatalytic Efficiency of Metallo Phthalocyanine Sensitized TiO2 (MPc/TiO2) Nanocomposites for Cr(VI) and Antibiotic Amoxicillin

Abstract

Dye sensitization on semiconductor catalyst TiO2 was performed with four different metallophthalocyanine (MPc) derivates (M: Zn, Cu, Co, and Si) using a modified sol-gel method. MPc derivatives were loaded on TiO2 at 1% mass ratio aiming to increase its photocatalytic action and to shift the light absorption to higher UV region (365 nm). Non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100 (TX-100) was used to obtain a homogenous and mesa pore catalyst structure. The prepared catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, and SEM to determine the crystal and surface structural properties of nanocomposites. The nanocomposites were used for photocatalytic removal and degradation of Cr(VI) and amoxicillin (AMX) as model pollutants. Photocatalytic reduction capacities of the catalysts were tested for Cr(VI) (10 mg/L) and AMX (20 mg/L) aqueous solutions. ZnPc-TiO2 catalyst was successful for Cr(VI) photoreduction since all Cr(VI) ions in the solution were successfully removed. Presence of TX-100 in the sol-gel synthesis of ZnPc-TiO2 had a positive effect by increasing the Cr(VI) removal rate to 97.93% after 150 min exposure period. Prepared catalysts were also tested for photodegradation of AMX, applying similar procedures. In general, all catalysts exhibited low degradation rates under the studied condition but more effective with 254 nm UV light (50.38%). Neither surface modification with TX-100 nor MPc sensitization provided significant degradation of AMX.

Review of the recent advances on the fabrication, modification and application of electrospun TiO2 and ZnO nanofibers for the treatment of organic pollutants in wastewater

“…Dye photosensitization entails modifying TiO 2 and ZnO with either natural or synthetic dye extracts, thereby activating their visible light absorption capacity (Goulart et al, 2020). Most of the commonly used photosensitizing dyes reported in the literature include porphyrins and metallophthalocyanines (Duan et al, 2012;Atta-Eyison et al, 2021;Keşir et al, 2021).…”

Oxidative Degradation of Pharmaceuticals: The Role of Tetrapyrrole-Based Catalysts

“…Sökmen [45] reported the synthesis of Co(quin) 4 Pc@TiO 2 by impregnation of Co(quin) 4 Pc (Figure 2) onto semiconducting TiO 2 . The catalyst, in a concentration of 1 g/L, was used in the photodegradation of amoxicilin (AMX, Figure 1), and 40% degradation was obtained after 150 min using a UV light lamp (12 W) at 254 nm.…”

Peripherally tetra-substituted zinc (II) phthalocyanine sensitized TiO2 composite: Monitoring with tandem LC/MS and photocatalytic degradation of amoxicillin

“…Furthermore, electrons excited by irradiation can simultaneously react with molecular oxygen adsorbed on the surface of TiO 2 and form superoxide ( ) radicals [11,14]. One of the handicaps is that TiO 2 can only utilize a small ultraviolet fraction of solar radiation reaching the Earth surface due to the high energy of its band gap, and arti cial UV light sources are not cheap [15].…”