Removal of persistent acetophenone from industrial waste-water via bismuth ferrite nanostructures

Syed Irfan; Sadaf Bashir Khan; Su Shiung Lam; Hwai Chyuan Ong; Muhammad Aizaz Ud Din; Fan Dong; Deliang Chen

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134750

Removal of persistent acetophenone from industrial waste-water via bismuth ferrite nanostructures

Chemosphere. 2022 Sep:302:134750. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134750. Epub 2022 Apr 30.

Authors

Syed Irfan¹, Sadaf Bashir Khan², Su Shiung Lam³, Hwai Chyuan Ong⁴, Muhammad Aizaz Ud Din⁵, Fan Dong⁶, Deliang Chen⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, PR China; Yangtze Delta Region Institute (Huzhou), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou, 313000, China.
² Dongguan Institute of Science and Technology Innovation, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China.
³ Pyrolysis Technology Research Group, Higher Institution Center of Excellence (HICoE), Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (Akuatrop), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 2103, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia. Electronic address: lam@umt.edu.my.
⁴ Future Technology Research Center, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, 123 University Road, Section 3, Douliou, Yunlin, 64002, Taiwan.
⁵ School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, PR China.
⁶ Yangtze Delta Region Institute (Huzhou), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou, 313000, China.
⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, PR China. Electronic address: dlchen@dgut.edu.cn.

PMID: 35504468
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134750

Abstract

Increasing water pollution is a severe problem in densely industrialized countries. Nanomaterials provide strong potentials for the efficient elimination of organic pollutants due to their beneficial properties. Advancement in water purification is required to more efficiently remove the emerging organic contaminants, especially in pharmaceuticals wastes such as acetophenone, which shows high solubility in industrial wastewaters. Bismuth ferrite-based nanostructures were fabricated using a novel double solvent sol-gel method. The phase purity and crystallinity of bismuth ferrite were confirmed using XRD and further endorsed by TEM analysis. The SEM and XPS were used to study the particle sizes and presence of co-dopants on the Bi and Fe-sites of bismuth ferrite. After co-doping, the band-gap engineering of pure bismuth ferrites was accomplished by reducing it from 2.06 eV to 1.45 eV, likely attributing to the creation of shallow traps for the incoming photo-generated charge carriers. In particular, the Bi_0.90Gd_0.10Fe_0.95Sn_0.05 and Bi_0.95Sm_0.05Fe_0.75Mn_0.25 successfully eliminated up to 98% of acetophenone from polluted water in 3 h by irradiation of visible-light. These results reveal the suitability of the co-doped bismuth ferrites photocatalysts for the practical removal of pharmaceutical contaminants in hazardous industrial wastewater. The photodegradation of acetophenone by bismuth ferrite nanostructures with potentially long-lasting reusability demonstrate its potential as an advanced photocatalyst for wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Acetophenone; Band-bending; Nanostructures; Photocatalysis; Sol-gel.

MeSH terms

Acetophenones
Bismuth* / chemistry
Catalysis
Ferric Compounds
Industrial Waste
Light
Nanostructures* / chemistry
Wastewater
Water

Substances

Acetophenones
Ferric Compounds
Industrial Waste
Waste Water
Water
ferrite
Bismuth