The degradation of bisphenol-A organic pollutant using the dispersal of TiO2 nanorods onto the partial reduction of graphene oxide nanosheets

Sultan Alomairy; Lalitha Gnanasekaran; Saravanan Rajendran; Walaa F Alsanie

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140143

The degradation of bisphenol-A organic pollutant using the dispersal of TiO₂ nanorods onto the partial reduction of graphene oxide nanosheets

Chemosphere. 2023 Nov:342:140143. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140143. Epub 2023 Sep 11.

Authors

Sultan Alomairy¹, Lalitha Gnanasekaran², Saravanan Rajendran³, Walaa F Alsanie⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, College of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: s.alomairy@tu.edu.sa.
² Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Tarapacá, Avda. General Velásquez, 1775, Arica, Chile; University Centre for Research & Development, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, 140413, India. Electronic address: lalitha1887@gmail.com.
³ Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Tarapacá, Avda. General Velásquez, 1775, Arica, Chile. Electronic address: saravanan3.raj@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Clinical Laboratorie, The Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia; Centre of Biomedical Sciences Research (CBSR), Deanship of ScientificResearch, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 37704086
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140143

Abstract

The notion of innovative combinations of semiconducting metal oxides for photocatalytic destruction is a key factor in the removal of environmental contaminants. However, for the first time, the combination was made possible for the aforementioned reason by embedding one-dimensional titanium dioxide (TiO₂) semiconductor nanorods on two-dimensional rGO (reduced graphene oxide) nanosheets utilizing hydrothermal and a modified Hummers' method. By applying several sophisticated procedures, the properties of these catalysts were found, and then the degradation of BPA (bisphenol-A) was examined with UV and visible light sources. Further, all the analyses were performed on pure TiO₂ material. As a result of the synergistic interaction between TiO₂ and rGO, the rGO-TiO₂ catalyst produced a favorable photocatalytic outcome. The structural investigation of rGO-TiO₂ has confirmed that the TiO₂ was in anatase phase along with GO and rGO peaks, and the morphological characterization showed that the TiO₂ nanorods were integrated randomly into the rGO nanosheets along with defective sites. Also, adding rGO to TiO₂ causes charge separation, and π-π interactions to improve the visible light absorption range. In this study, the main model organic component in the photocatalytic degradation is bisphenol-A (BPA). During visible light irradiation, the OH radicals were finally produced by the redox reactions. Furthermore, the rGO surface adsorbs the phenol molecules due to graphene π-π interactions, thus narrowing the band gap and increasing the efficiency of BPA degradation.

Keywords: Bisphenol-A; Photocatalytic degradation; Semiconducting metal oxides; rGO nanosheets; π–π conjugated interactions.