Bio-based matrix photocatalysts for photodegradation of antibiotics

Antibiotics development during the last century permitted unprecedent medical advances. However, it is undeniable that there has been an abuse and misuse of antimicrobials in medicine and cosmetics, food production and food processing, in the last decades. The pay toll for human development and consumism is the emergence of extended antimicrobial resistance and omnipresent contamination of the biosphere. The One Health concept recognizes the interconnection of human, environmental and animal health, being impossible alter one without affecting the others. In this context, antibiotic decontamination from water-sources is of upmost importance, with new and more efficient strategies needed. In this framework, light-driven antibiotic degradation has gained interest in the last few years, strongly relying in semiconductor photocatalysts. To improve the semiconductor properties (i.e., efficiency, recovery, bandgap width, dispersibility, wavelength excitation, etc.), bio-based supporting material as photocatalysts matrices have been thoroughly studied, exploring synergetic effects as operating parameters that could improve the photodegradation of antibiotics. The present work describes some of the most relevant advances of the last 5 years on photodegradation of antibiotics and other antimicrobial molecules. It presents the conjugation of semiconductor photocatalysts to different organic scaffolds (biochar and biopolymers), then to describe hybrid systems based on g-C3N4 and finally addressing the emerging use of organic photocatalysts. These systems were developed for the degradation of several antibiotics and antimicrobials, and tested under different conditions, which are analyzed and thoroughly discussed along the work.

Preparation of agar functionalized graphene oxide-immobilized copper ferrite aerogel for dye degradation via dark-Fenton oxidative process

Dye and textile industries are one of the main causes of water pollution and put the environment and health of society at risk. Developing new materials to decontaminate industrial waste effluents containing dyes as pollutants is challenging due to numerous issues, including tailoring recyclable and biodegradable agents. This study focuses on applying an advanced oxidation process, electro-Fenton for the treatment of dye-containing wastewater using agar-functionalized graphene oxide-immobilized copper ferrite aerogel. The objective is therefore to determine the optimal conditions for the degradation of model pollutants methylene blue (MB). MB was oxidized and degraded through the dark-Fenton process using Agar@GO-CuFe2O4 as a new biobased catalyst. The effect of the operating parameters was then evaluated to determine the optimal conditions. The degradation process was screened for different initial concentrations of dye solution between 10 and 150 mg/l, a volume range of H2O2 between 0.5 and 2.5 ml, and different pH from 2 to 7. The results show that 99.89 % of the MB with the initial concentration of 150 ppm was degraded by 20 mg of the catalyst and 2 ml of H2O2 (30 % W/W) at 40 °C and pH = 6. Pseudo-second-order kinetics satisfactorily describes the experimental data. SYNOPSIS: The prepared catalyst can be applied to oxidize industrial effluents before they are released into the environment.

Highly efficient removal of organic contaminant with wide concentration range by a novel self-cleaning hydrogel: Mechanism, degradation pathway and DFT calculation

A novel carbon nitride based self-cleaning hydrogel photocatalyst (KI-PCN gel, potassium and iodine co-doped carbon nitride confined in alginate) has been successfully constructed by a facile method. Fabricated photocatalyst showed enhanced synergistic adsorption-photocatalytic degradation property on a high concentration of methylene blue (HMB) because of enhanced carrier separation efficiency and improved light adsorption capacity of KI-PCN. As expected, the KI-PCN gel showed the highest apparent rate constant value ₍K_app =0.0310 min^-1), which was about 38.8 and 5.8 times as that of blank hydrogel (K_app=0.0008 min^-1) and PCN gel (K_app=0.0053 min^-1), respectively. Meanwhile, KI-PCN gel can continuously adsorb low concentration of MB (LMB), and the MB-adsorbed KI-PCN gel can self-clean under light irradiation. The bench-scale experiments simulating real river showed that KI-PCN gel can effectively and continuously remove LMB (0.1-20 ppm), indicating the possibility for the removal of contaminants in natural rivers. Furthermore, the possible degradation pathways were proposed by combining the density functional calculations (DFT) and intermediates identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). This work proposed a new perspective to acquire a novel self-cleaning and easily recyclable photocatalyst for treatment of wide concentration range organic wastewater as well as remediation of natural waterbody.

Photochemical synthesis of bimetallic CuNiSx quantum dots onto g-C3N4 as a cocatalyst for high hydrogen evolution

CuNiSx QDs were fabricated onto g-C3N4 by photochemical deposition method. The small size can expose more active S sites on the edge and the introduction of Cu2+ into NiSx can slightly modulate the electronic structure of Ni and S centers, thus weakening the S–Hads bonds.