Evaluation of N doped rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH)8 nanocomposite in cyanide degradation and its bactericidal activities

Shramana Bhattacharya; Anup Anang Das; Ganesh Chandra Dhal; Prasanta Kumar Sahoo; Abhishek Tripathi; Naresh Kumar Sahoo

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114022

Evaluation of N doped rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH)₈ nanocomposite in cyanide degradation and its bactericidal activities

J Environ Manage. 2022 Jan 15;302(Pt A):114022. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114022. Epub 2021 Nov 1.

Authors

Shramana Bhattacharya¹, Anup Anang Das¹, Ganesh Chandra Dhal², Prasanta Kumar Sahoo³, Abhishek Tripathi⁴, Naresh Kumar Sahoo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Environmental Science Program, Faculty of Engineering and Technology (ITER), Siksha'O'Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, 751030, Odisha, India.
² Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya, India.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology (ITER), Siksha'O'Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, 751 030, Odisha, India.
⁴ Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, Jaipur, 302017, India.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Environmental Science Program, Faculty of Engineering and Technology (ITER), Siksha'O'Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, 751030, Odisha, India. Electronic address: nareshsahoo@soa.ac.in.

PMID: 34735832
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114022

Abstract

In the present study, an attempt has been made to design a solar light driven N-rGO-ZnO- CoPc(COOH)₈ nanocomposite for the degradation of cyanide. The morphological and structural characterization of the synthesized nanocomposite was performed by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, UV-vis DRS, FESEM, TEM, EDS, PL spectra and BET surface area. The results revealed that almost 91% degradation and 86% toxicity removal occurred at 25 mgL^-1 of initial cyanide concentration by the N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH)₈ nanocomposite under illumination of solar light within 120 min. Analysis of free radicals reveals that the generation of OH^. radicals was the predominant species in the photocatalytic degradation process. The cyanide degradation follows pseudo-first order kinetics. The estimated apparent rate constant (K_app) of the above nanocomposite was 3 times higher than that of the ZnO photocatalyst alone together with a very good recycle activities. This might be due to the application of metallpthalocyanine photosensitizer CoPc(COOH)₈ which enhances the rate of visible light absorption efficiency and activates the higher band gap ZnO photocatalyst under visible light. In addition, the presence of residual oxygen in N-rGO also promotes nucleation and anchor sites for interfacial contact between ZnO and N-rGO for effective charge transfer. Further, the N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH)₈ photocatalytic system showed significant antibacterial activities against mixed culture systems. Therefore, the N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH)₈ nanocomposite may be an alternative solar light driven photocatalyst system for the removal of cyanide from the wastewater along with its strong disinfectant activities.

Keywords: Cyanide; Disinfection; N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH)(8); Photodegradation; Toxicity.

MeSH terms

Catalysis
Cyanides
Graphite
Nanocomposites*
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Zinc Oxide*

Substances

Cyanides
graphene oxide
Graphite
Zinc Oxide