Microwave-assisted synthesis of ZnAl-LDH/g-C3N4 composite for degradation of antibiotic ciprofloxacin under visible-light illumination

Ambedkar Gandamalla; Saikumar Manchala; Atul Verma; Yen-Pei Fu; Vishnu Shanker

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131182

Microwave-assisted synthesis of ZnAl-LDH/g-C₃N₄ composite for degradation of antibiotic ciprofloxacin under visible-light illumination

Chemosphere. 2021 Nov:283:131182. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131182. Epub 2021 Jun 16.

Authors

Ambedkar Gandamalla¹, Saikumar Manchala², Atul Verma³, Yen-Pei Fu⁴, Vishnu Shanker⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, 506004, Telangana, India; Center for Advanced Materials, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, 506004, Telangana, India; Department of Material Science and Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, 97401, Taiwan, ROC.
² Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, 506004, Telangana, India; Center for Advanced Materials, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, 506004, Telangana, India; Department of Chemistry, Malla Reddy Engineering College (Autonomous), Maisaammaguda, Dhulapally, Secunderabad, 500100, Telangana, India.
³ Department of Material Science and Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, 97401, Taiwan, ROC.
⁴ Department of Material Science and Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, 97401, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: ypfu@gms.ndhu.edu.tw.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, 506004, Telangana, India; Center for Advanced Materials, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, 506004, Telangana, India. Electronic address: vishnu@nitw.ac.in.

PMID: 34153923
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131182

Abstract

Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a fluoroquinolone family antibiotic pollutant. CIP existence in water environment has been rising very fast in day-to-day life and subsequently, it gives enormous health issues for humans because of its potent biological activity. To encounter this, current researchers are focusing on the development of highly efficient visible light semiconductor nanocomposites with potential photocatalytic activity. In the present work, we have successfully synthesized highly efficient zinc-aluminum layered double hydroxides with graphitic carbon nitride (ZALDH/CN) composites via a simple microwave irradiation method first time for the degradation of CIP under visible light. The fabricated materials are subsequently characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. UV-Vis DRS, TRFL, XRD, FT-IR, BET, FE-SEM, TEM, and XPS for optical, crystal structure, morphological, and elemental analysis. The main reactive intermediates which are formed during the photocatalytic degradation process were analyzed by LC-MS analysis. It is worth to note that, the optimized ZALDH/CN-10 composite showed the highest photo-degradation rate constant of 1.22 × 10^-2 min^-1 with 84.10% degradation is higher than bare CN and ZALDH photocatalysts. Based on the electron-hole pair trapping experiment results, possible CIP photo-degradation mechanism was also explained in the present study. With all results, this work demonstrates the ZALDH/CN composite materials showed a high synergistic effect with more specific surface area. Highest specific surface area leads to enhanced visible light adsorption capacity. Subsequently improved number of catalytically active sites. Furthermore, as compared with pure materials, composites of ZALDH/CN are having low electron-hole pair recombination. Consequently, the composites ZALDH/CN showed superior photocatalytic activity for antibiotic pollutant CIP degradation under visible-light illumination.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Ciprofloxacin; Fluoroquinolones; Visible-light; ZnAl-LDH; g-C(3)N(4).

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents*
Catalysis
Ciprofloxacin*
Humans
Light
Lighting
Microwaves
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Ciprofloxacin