Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of porous ZnO stabilized by TiO2 and Fe3O4 nanoparticles: investigation of pesticide degradation reaction in water treatment

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 28; no. 8; pp. 9146 - 9156
• Main Authors: Saljooqi, Asma, Shamspur, Tayebeh, Mostafavi, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-02-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Aquatic organisms; Aquatic Pollution; Aqueous solutions; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Catalytic activity; Chlorpyrifos; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Electron microscopes; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Fourier analysis; Fourier transforms; Holes (electron deficiencies); Infrared spectroscopy; Iron oxides; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Organophosphates; Organophosphorus pesticides; Pest control; Pesticides; Pests; pH effects; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Research Article; Response surface methodology; Scanning electron microscopy; Substrates; Titanium dioxide; Toxicity; Transmission electron microscopy; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water treatment; X ray analysis; X-ray diffraction; Zinc oxide; Chlorpyrifos; Photocatalytic degradation; nanocomposite; Response surface methodology; mZnO/TiO; Fe; O
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-11122-2

The present research studies the photocatalytic degradation of a pesticide using TiO
2
and Fe
3
O
4
nanoparticles supported on ZnO mesoporous (mZnO) substrate. Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide with a C
9
H
11
Cl
3
NO
3
PS chemical formula. It is broadly utilized in agricultural fields to control product pests. The chlorpyrifos toxicity is acute and still dangerous to any aquatic organisms. The mZnO/TiO
2
-Fe
3
O
4
material was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and N
2
adsorption and desorption (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller; BET). In order to optimize three important operating parameters, i.e., chlorpyrifos concentration, mZnO/TiO
2
-Fe
3
O
4
nanocomposite amount, and pH, for photocatalytic degradation of chlorpyrifos, response surface methodology (RSM) was applied. The central composite design (CCD) including 20 experiments was used to conduct experiments. The highest photodegradation performance of about 94.8% was obtained for a chlorpyrifos concentration of 8 ppm, a pH of 10, and an amount of mZnO/TiO
2
-Fe
3
O
4
nanocomposite of 60 mg. The degradation of chlorpyrifos using mZnO/TiO
2
-Fe
3
O
4
presented good performance (more than 94%). The photocatalytic reaction followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.058 min
−1
for chlorpyrifos degradation. The results propose that mZnO/TiO
2
-Fe
3
O
4
nanocomposite is a suitable alternative for the degradation of chlorpyrifos in aqueous solution. The improved photocatalytic efficiency could be attributed to the effective separation of electron-hole pairs via a Z-scheme mechanism.