నైరూప్య

A new insight into an effective degradation of Ciprofloxacin antibiotic and real pharmaceutical wastewater using direct Z-type WO3/g-C3N4 novel nanocomposite: Effective factors, toxicity and biodegradability studies

Aliakbar Isari

 Recently, Ciprofloxacin (CIP) has raised serious environmental concerns due to its high resistance to traditional wastewater treatments methods. Heterogeneous photocatalysis as an advanced oxidation process (AOP) is a promising alternative to conventional water treatments. In this work, as a straightforward efficient approach, direct Z-type WO3/g-C3N4 (WCN) nanocomposite was synthesized through a facile one step hydrothermal method. Structural, morphological and surface properties of the samples were comprehensively characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TEM, FESEM, EIS, TGA, EDX, DRS, BET. The promotion effect and excellent photocatalytic properties of this nanocomposite can be attributed to synergistic effect between the interface of WO3 NPs and g-C3N4 nanosheets , including the enlarged specific surface areas and enhanced absorption of visible light. The effect of operational parameters such as g-C3N4 content, pH, catalyst dosage, initial CPF concentration was studied. After 60 min photocatalytic treatment, complete degradation of CPF achieved. According to kinetic studies, photocatalytic degradation process followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. In addition, the anion addition effect, mineralization, degradation mechanism, and pathway were also investigated. In the end, Moreover, system ability was assessed to treat a real pharmaceutical wastewater under optimized conditions. The biodegradability and toxicity of treated wastewater were examined by proper methods.