Synthesis of ZnO photocatalyst modified with activated carbon for a perfect degradation of ciprofloxacin and its secondary pollutants

Abstract

The proposed research, presents the synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic accomplishment of ZnO nanoplate (ZnOs) modified with activated carbon derived from Konar bark. The obtained nanocomposite (photocatalyst) was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). First, the ZnO photocatalyst and activated carbon (AC) were prepared separately; then, the ZnO photocatalyst was modified with activated carbon. Various parameters namely pH, degradation time, and photocatalyst dose were optimized and studied in multivariate method by design expert7 software. The synergic efficiency of ZnO‐AC (adsorbent/photocatalyst) exhibited a good rate of ciprofloxacin (CIP) removal under visible irradiation. In addition, first pseudo order kinetic and isotherms equations were calculated. Moreover, the identification of degradation products was performed by ultra performance liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometer (UPLC‐MS/MS). It is for the first time that a ZnO photocatalyst modified with activated carbon (ZnO‐AC) applied for CIP degradation.

Hybrid Material Based on an Amorphous-Carbon Matrix and ZnO/Zn for the Solar Photocatalytic Degradation of Basic Blue 41

“…One of the major issues is the water pollution [3,4] by residual industrial liquids (RILs). Thus, a wide range of methodologies such as adsorption [5,6], biodegradation [4,7], and the so-called advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] have been applied for the treatment of polluted water. Heterogeneous photocatalysis is one of the most efficient AOPs [9,11,12,[14][15][16].…”

“…Heterogeneous photocatalysis is one of the most efficient AOPs [9,11,12,[14][15][16]. This technology uses metal oxide-based semiconductors such as TiO 2 [9,11,12,17,18], ZnO [18][19][20][21], SnO 2 , [22] and CeO 2 [23] among others. It has been reported that TiO 2 is the best photocatalyst to mineralize a wide range of pollutants to carbon dioxide and water [14,24], and this feature has been addressed as an exceptional combination of electronic structure, light absorption properties, charge transport characteristics, and low cost.…”

“…Thus, improvement of the performance of photocatalysts is required for the treatment of polluted water. In this sense, ZnO has received increasing attention for the photocatalytic remediation of polluted water [18][19][20][21]27,28]. ZnO is a n-type semiconductor material with a high thermal conductivity, wide band gap (3.37 eV), that is able to generate charge carriers when stimulated with UVA light, biocompatible, and with a high natural abundance, and low-cost.…”

“…In major part, this effect occurs due to the high reduction potential of carbon materials [32][33][34][35], which allows an efficient electron-donor transference from the graphene-based layers to the semiconductor, protecting them from thermo-or photo-oxidation processes, even at strong oxidation conditions such as UV irradiation and high temperature. The particle size, morphology, surface area, crystalline framework, and composition are responsible of the optoelectronic properties of ZnO [18][19][20][21][27][28][29][30][31] including the photocatalytic activity. Properties of ZnO-based materials are highly dependent of the synthesis method [18][19][20][21][27][28][29][30][31][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] including viscosity of slurry suspensions [18,20,27], Pechini synthesis [28,42], polymeric precursor degradation [29], sol-gel following annealing [19], microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis [31], high-energy ball-milling [36], spray pyrolysis [37], suction casting [39], and hydrothermal synthesis [21,38,…”

“…Properties of ZnO-based materials are highly dependent of the synthesis method [18][19][20][21][27][28][29][30][31][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] including viscosity of slurry suspensions [18,20,27], Pechini synthesis [28,42], polymeric precursor degradation [29], sol-gel following annealing [19], microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis [31], high-energy ball-milling [36], spray pyrolysis [37], suction casting [39], and hydrothermal synthesis [21,38,40,41], among others. These set of works have shown that ZnO is a versatile ceramic material, which can be used in several applications such as solar cells [31], varistors [36], luminescent materials [37], and photocatalysts [18][19][20][21]27,28]. An interesting approach is to combine ZnO with carbon-based materials [18,20,27,28,40,…”