Photo-Induced Super-Hydrophilicity of Nano-Calcite @ Polyester Fabric: Enhanced Solar Photocatalytic Activity against Imidacloprid

Ambreen Ashar; Ayesha Qayyum; Ijaz Ahmad Bhatti; Humera Aziz; Zeeshan Ahmad Bhutta; Mostafa A Abdel-Maksoud; Muhammad Hamzah Saleem; Mohamed R Eletmany

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c02987

Photo-Induced Super-Hydrophilicity of Nano-Calcite @ Polyester Fabric: Enhanced Solar Photocatalytic Activity against Imidacloprid

ACS Omega. 2023 Sep 21;8(39):35722-35737. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c02987. eCollection 2023 Oct 3.

Authors

Ambreen Ashar¹, Ayesha Qayyum², Ijaz Ahmad Bhatti³, Humera Aziz^{4

5}, Zeeshan Ahmad Bhutta⁶, Mostafa A Abdel-Maksoud⁷, Muhammad Hamzah Saleem⁸, Mohamed R Eletmany^{1

9}

Affiliations

¹ TECS Department, Wilson College of Textiles, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States.
² Department of Chemical Engineering (BK21 FOUR Graduate Program), Dong-A University, Busan 49315, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Agricultural Sciences, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Environmental Science, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
⁶ Laboratory of Veterinary Immunology and Biochemistry, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
⁹ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt.

Abstract

The present study is pertinent to photo-induced, hydrophilic, nano-calcite grown onto the mercerized surface of polyester fabric (PF), treated with UV (10-50 min) and visible light (1-5 h) in addition to its photocatalytic application. The wicking method has been employed to select the most hydrophilic sample of fabric upon irradiation. The micrographs obtained by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy indicated the erosions occurring at the surface of nano-calcite after UV light irradiation, maintaining the crystallinity of the photocatalyst. The surface charge has been measured for as-fabricated and irradiated nano-calcite @ PF for the development of high negative zeta potential after UV light irradiation (-24.6 mV). The irradiated nano-calcite @ PF exhibited a significant change in its contact angle, and the wetting property was enhanced to a considerable extent on UV (55.32°) and visible light irradiation (79.00°) in comparison to as-fabricated nano-calcite @ PF (137.54°). The irradiated samples of nano-calcite @ PF delineated the redshift in harvesting of solar spectrum, as revealed by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy comparative spectra. Additionally, the band gap of untreated nano-calcite was found to be 3.5 eV, while UV- and visible light-irradiated PF showed a reduction in band gap up to 2.95 and 3.15 eV upon UV and visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic efficiency of mesoporous nano-calcite was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of imidacloprid as the probe pollutant. Higher solar photocatalytic degradation of imidacloprid (94.15%) was attained by UV light-irradiated nano-calcite @ PF. The time-resolved photoluminescence study has verified the high photocatalytic activity of UV light-irradiated nano-calcite @ PF for the generation of high concentration of hydroxyl radicals. The highly efficient reusability of a nano-calcite-based solar photocatalytic reactor has been observed for 10 cycles of treatment of imidacloprid bearing wastewater. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of UV light-exposed (20 min), superhydrophilic, nano-calcite @ PF for mineralization of pollutants suggests it to be an efficient solar photocatalyst for environmental applications.