Ashfaq, M., Talreja, N., Chauhan, D., Rodriguez, C. A., Mera, A. C., & Mangalaraja, R. V. (2022). Synthesis of reduced graphene oxide incorporated bimetallic (Cu/Bi) nanorods based photocatalyst materials for the degradation of gallic acid and bacteria. J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 110, 447–455.
Abstract: Gallic acid (GA) is a polyphenols compound commonly present in wastewater that immensely affects aquatic and human life. GA is also responsible for the inhibitory effects on the microbial activity in the soil, thereby decreasing the fertility of the soil. Therefore, the removal of GA from the wastewater is necessary to combat such issues. The present study focused on the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) incorporated bimetallic (Cu/Bi) based nanorods (r-GO-Cu/Bi-NRs) and their photocatalytic applications. Incorporating GO within the CuBi2O4-NRs might decrease the bandgap value, thereby increasing the interfacial charge transfer. Moreover, GO increased the reactive sites and oxygen defects onto the r-GO-Cu/Bi-NRs that led to the separation rate of the photo-induced charge carriers and migration, thereby enhancing the photodegradation ability of the synthesized r-GO-Cu/Bi-NRs. The synthesis process of the r-GO-Cu/Bi-NRs is facile, novel, and economically viable for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.
|
Pugazhenthiran, N., Sathishkumar, P., Albormani, O., Murugesan, S., Kandasamy, M., Selvaraj, M., et al. (2023). Silver nanoparticles modified ZnO nanocatalysts for effective degradation of ceftiofur sodium under UV-vis light illumination. Chemosphere, 313, 137515.
Abstract: Light-induced photocatalytic degradation of ceftiofur sodium (CFS) has been assessed in the presence of plas-monic zinc oxide nanostructures (ZnONSTs), like, ZnO nanoparticles, ZnO nanorods (ZnONRs) and ZnO nano -flowers (ZnONFs). Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) loaded ZnO nanostructures (Ag-ZnONSTs) are obtained through seed-assisted chemical reaction followed by chemical reduction of silver. The surface modification of ZnO nanostructures by Ag NPs effectually altered their optical properties. Further, the surface plasmonic effect of Ag NPs facilitates visible light absorption by ZnONSTs and improved the photogenerated electron and hole separation, which makes the ZnONSTs a more active photocatalyst than TiO2 (P25) nanoparticles. Especially, Ag-ZnONRs showed higher CFS oxidation rate constant (k' = 4.6 x 10-4 s-1) when compared to Ag-ZnONFs (k' = 2.8 x 10-4 s-1) and Ag-ZnONPs (k' = 2.5 x 10-4 s-1), owing to their high aspect ratio (60:1). The unidirectional transport of photogenerated charge carriers on the Ag-ZnONRs may be accountable for the observed high photocatalytic oxidation of CFS. The photocatalytic oxidation of CFS mainly proceeds through center dot OH radicals generated on the Ag-ZnONRs surface under light illumination. In addition, heterogeneous activation of perox-ymonosulfate by Ag-ZnONRs accelerates the rate of photocatalytic mineralization of CFS. The quantification of oxidative radicals supports the proposed CFS oxidation mechanism. Stability studies of plasmonic Ag-ZnONSTs strongly suggests that it could be useful to clean large volume of pharmaceutical wastewater under direct solar light irradiation.
|