Bismuth-Doped Nano Zerovalent Iron: A Novel Catalyst for Chloramphenicol Degradation and Hydrogen Production

Murtaza Sayed; Aamir Khan; Sajid Rauf; Noor S Shah; Faiza Rehman; Abdullah A Al-Kahtani; Javed Ali Khan; Jibran Iqbal; Grzegorz Boczkaj; Ikhtiar Gul; Maleeha Bushra

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c04574

Bismuth-Doped Nano Zerovalent Iron: A Novel Catalyst for Chloramphenicol Degradation and Hydrogen Production

ACS Omega. 2020 Nov 19;5(47):30610-30624. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04574. eCollection 2020 Dec 1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Radiation Chemistry Laboratory, National Centre of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan.
² Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Faculty of Physics and Electronic Science, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei 430062, PR China.
³ Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Vehari 61100, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Poonch, Rawalakot 12350, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.
⁵ Chemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ College of Natural and Health Sciences, Zayed University, P.O. Box 144534 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
⁷ Department of Process Engineering and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, G. Narutowicza St. 11/12, Gdansk 80-233, Poland.

Abstract

In this study, we showed that doping bismuth (Bi) at the surface of Fe⁰ (Bi/Fe⁰, bimetallic iron system)-synthesized by a simple borohydride reduction method-can considerably accelerate the reductive degradation of chloramphenicol (CHP). At a reaction time of 12 min, 62, 68, 74, 95, and 82% degradation of CHP was achieved with Fe⁰, Bi/Fe⁰-1 [1% (w/w) of Bi], Bi/Fe⁰-3 [3% (w/w) of Bi], Bi/Fe⁰-5 [5% (w/w) of Bi], and Bi/Fe⁰-8 [8% (w/w) of Bi], respectively. Further improvements in the degradation efficiency of CHP were observed by combining the peroxymonosulfate (HSO₅ ^-) with Bi/Fe⁰-5 (i.e., 81% by Bi/Fe⁰-5 and 98% by the Bi/Fe⁰-5/HSO₅ ^- system at 8 min of treatment). Interestingly, both Fe⁰ and Bi/Fe⁰-5 showed effective H₂ production under dark conditions that reached 544 and 712 μM by Fe⁰ and Bi/Fe⁰-5, respectively, in 70 mL of aqueous solution containing 0.07 g (i.e., at 1 g L^-1 concentration) of the catalyst at ambient temperature.