Efficient and recyclable degradation of organic dye pollutants by CeO2@ZIF-8 nanozyme-based non-photocatalytic system

Abstract

Advanced oxidation processes-based catalysis system as the most typical pollutant degradation technology always suffer from poor durability and photo-dependent. Inspired by the fact that some nanomaterials exhibit catalytic properties closer to natural enzymes, a high peroxidase-like activity and stability CeO₂@ZIF-8 nanozyme was synthesized in this study for non-photodegradation of dyes pollution. Multiple characterization techniques were applied to prove the successful synthesis of the nanozyme. The influence of different parameters on the catalytic degradation of organic dye by nanozyme was investigated. This nanozyme achieved a maximum degradation efficiency of 99.81% for methyl orange and maintained its catalytic performance in repeated experiments. Possible degradation intermediates and pathways for methyl orange were then proposed. In addition, the CeO₂@ZIF-8 loaded starch/agarose films were prepared for the portable and recyclable remediation of real dye wastewater, which maintained more than 80% degradation efficiency after 5 successive cycles. These results suggested that nanozyme based non-photocatalytic system is a potential catalyst for dye degradation and it opens a new avenue to develop high-performance and recyclable catalysts for pollutant remediation.

Keywords: CeO(2)@ZIF-8 nanozyme; Dye degradation; Environmental catalysis; Peroxidase-like activity; Starch/agarose film.