Synthesis of ternary-based visible light nano-photocatalyst for decontamination of organic dyes-loaded wastewater

Arif Nawaz; Adnan Khan; Nisar Ali; Ping Mao; Xiaoyan Gao; Nauman Ali; Muhammad Bilal; Hammad Khan

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133121

Synthesis of ternary-based visible light nano-photocatalyst for decontamination of organic dyes-loaded wastewater

Chemosphere. 2022 Feb:289:133121. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133121. Epub 2021 Dec 3.

Authors

Arif Nawaz¹, Adnan Khan¹, Nisar Ali², Ping Mao³, Xiaoyan Gao², Nauman Ali¹, Muhammad Bilal⁴, Hammad Khan⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemical Sciences, University of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 25120, Pakistan.
² Key Laboratory for Palygorskite Science and Applied Technology of Jiangsu Province, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Deep Utilization Technology of Rock-salt Resource, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian, 223003, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Palygorskite Science and Applied Technology of Jiangsu Province, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Deep Utilization Technology of Rock-salt Resource, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian, 223003, China. Electronic address: pingmao@hyit.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Life Science and Food Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian, 223003, China. Electronic address: bilaluaf@hyit.edu.cn.
⁵ Faculty of Materials & Chemical Engineering GIK, Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology, 23460, Topi, KP, Pakistan.

PMID: 34871610
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133121

Abstract

The release of dyes-loaded wastewater from various industries is a major threat to human beings due to their health hazard effects. Ternary ferrites-based visible light photocatalyst Fe₂Zn_0.5Cu_0.5 O₄-CM (CZF-CM) was formed via the co-precipitation method. These prepared ternary ferrites nanoparticles Fe₂Zn_0.5Cu_0.5O₄ (CZF-NPs) and photocatalyst (CZF-CM) were analyzed using different spectroscopic techniques. The average crystallite size of CZF-NPs was calculated from XRD data using Scherer's equation and found to be 12 nm. The elemental composition of the synthesized ternary ferrites nanoparticles (CZF-NPs) was defined by the EDX images. The morphology of CZF-CM photocatalyst is spherical, having a smooth surface and average microspheres size of 810 μm based on SEM micrographs. The photocatalyst has bandgap of 2.57 eV, which lies in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum derived by extrapolating Tauc's plot. Photocatalyst CZF-CM showed 94% degradation efficiency for Rhodamine B (RB) dye at optimized conditions of initial dye concentration, catalyst dosage, pH and sunlight irradiation contact time as 40 ppm, 0.7 g, pH 8 and 125 min, respectively. Maximum degradation (96%) of methyl orange (MO) dye occurred at pH 6, at similar optimized conditions as the RB dye. The binary ferrites photocatalyst Fe₂CuO₄-CM (CF-CM) and Fe₂ZnO₄-CM (ZF-CM) of the selected metals showed lesser photocatalytic efficiency than ternary ferrites. An artificial neural network in addition to the response surface methodology was used for the optimization process. The artificial neural network is highly in agreement with the experimental results obtained for the selected dyes. The corresponding predicted response for each data set from ANOVA showed high R², R²_adj, and R²_pred values for the proposed model. It also indicates that contributing parameters in the model are significant due to having very high F-values and low p-values. It is concluded that the synthesized photocatalysts are considered an efficient entrant for the decolorization of industrial wastewater.

Keywords: Artificial neural network; Degradation; Methyl orange; Organic dyes; Photocatalyst; Rhodamine B; Ternary ferrites nanoparticles.

MeSH terms

Catalysis
Coloring Agents
Decontamination*
Humans
Light
Wastewater*

Substances

Coloring Agents
Waste Water