Proficient sonophotocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 nanocomposite immobilized on zeolite: Optimization, and artificial neural network modeling

• Published in: Ultrasonics sonochemistry Vol. 102; p. 106740
• Main Authors: Rashtbari, Samaneh, Dehghan, Gholamreza, Marefat, Arezu, Khataee, Simin, Khataee, Alireza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 01-01-2024
• Subjects: Sonophotocatalysis; Nanocomposites; Peroxidase-mimic activity; Artificial neural network
• ISSN: 1873-2828

The health of all living organisms is greatly influenced by the quality of the water. Therefore, developing cost-effective, eco-friendly, and easily accessible methods is desperately needed to meet the high global demand for clean water. Recently, nanozyme-based dye degradation methods have been promising for the remediation of water pollution. In this work, peroxidase-mimic Co
O
/TiO
nanocomposite was synthesized and characterized for its size, morphology, and crystalline structure. Colorimetric assay results showed that the peroxidase-like activity of the Co
O
/TiO
nanocomposite was considerably enhanced compared to the pure Co
O
NPs and TiO
NPs. Besides excellent enzyme-mimic activity, the higher sonophotocatalytic dye degradation capability of the nanocomposite after immobilization on zeolite (Co
O
/TiO
@Ze) was also demonstrated. Under optimal conditions (pH = 5.0, 25 °C), 0.1 g/L of catalyst was able to degrade 100 % of methylene blue (MB) with 600 μM in the presence of 30 μM H
O
within 12 min. GC/MS analysis and toxicity studies revealed less toxic metabolite production after treatment of MB with sonophotocatalytic Co
O
/TiO
@Ze. Modeling of MB degradation using artificial neural networks (ANN) with a 5:6:1 topology was successfully performed, and the results confirmed the fitness of theoretical and experimental outputs according to the calculated correlation coefficient values. The prepared nanocomposite could thus be used as a promising and highly effective catalyst for the removal of organic dyes from polluted water.