β-cyclodextrinbased magnetic ternary nanocomposite for efficient adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine Blue, Gunner 500, Cefixime, and p-Nitrophenol

Abstract

In this work, ternary metal oxide composite CuO/Fe2O3/ZnO was synthesized through sol-gel method and further modified with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) to form a novel and effective β-CD-CuO/Fe2O3/ZnO catalyst for the organic pollutants adsorption and degradation. Both catalysts were characterized by P-XRD, SEM, EDX, DRS, PL, DTA/TGA and FT-IR. The adsorption and photocatalytic activity of the above synthesized catalyst were carried out at neutral pH and 1 g/L catalysts dosage for the different types of water pollutants. β-CD-CuO/Fe2O3/ZnO achieved degradation efficiency as 89.3% in 160 min (RhB), 93.2% in 160 min (Gunner 500), 84.1% in 200 min (Cefixime), and 81.5% in 180 min (p-NP). It was also observed that presence of β-CD enhanced the adsorption/degradation efficiency. Kinetics results followed to the pseudo first order (PSO) with the k1 values as 10.40 × 10−3min−1, 0.17 × 10−3min−1, 4.94 × 10−3min−1 and 1.83 × 10−3min−1 for RhB, Gunner 500, Cefixime and p-NP respectively. These photocatalysts exhibit high efficiency in a short reaction time, and good reusability for real wastewater application.