Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Climate Action (SDG 13)
Synthesis and application of semiconductor-based photocatalysts for photocatalytic degradation of dyes and antibiotics Kokoti R Leshabane, David M Mabena, Tumisang Lekgetho, Mabuatsela V Maphoru * 175 Nelson Mandela Drive, Tshwane University of Technology, Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry. E-mail: MaphoruM@tut.ac.za Water serves as an essential day to day necessity for the survival of humans and animals, and the balanced ecological system, in general. Due to the rapid and incessantly amplified urbanization and industrialization, the prevalence of organic pollutants in water pose serious threats to both human and animal health. 1 In this work ZnO, MOSe 2 , TiO 2 , BiVO 4 , BiVO 4 -TiO 2 and Ag 3 VO 4 were synthesized by various methods such as microwave irradiation, hydrothermal and sol-gel method. The photocatalytic results for ZnO prepared at various microwave power outputs of 250 and 600 W, and calcination temperatures of 250 and 450, showed that the preparation determine the catalytic outcome (Figure 1b). This is due to their different structural properties (Figure 1a). The results for photocatalytic degradations of methylene blue in Figure 2 show that all ZnO catalysts are active in the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. However, ZnO catalysts prepared at a power output of 600 W, ZnO-600W@250 and ZnO- 600W@450, are highly efficient than the ones prepared at 200 W. In addition, ZnO-600W@450 is the most active photocatalysts and it completely degraded methylene blue within 35 min in comparison to 45 min taken by ZnO-600W@250 to degrade the entire methylene blue in the solution. These catalysts will be further used for the photocatalytic degradation various dyes and antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, cefixime and tetracycline.
Figure 1: XRD patterns of ZnO photocatalysts and photocatalytic degradations of methylene blue ZnO photocatalysts
Key words: Pollutants, Photocatalyst, ZnO, Dyes, Antibiotics References 1. V.K. Parida, D. Saidulu, A. Majumder, A. Srivastava, B. Gupta And A.K. Gupta, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 2021, 9(5), 105966.
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