Abstract
Abatement of contaminants of emerging concerns (CECs) in water sources has been widely studied employing TiO2 based heterogeneous photocatalysis. However, low quantum energy yield among other limitations of titania has led to its modification with other semiconductor materials for improved photocatalytic activity. In this work, a 0.05 wt.% CuWO4 over TiO2 was prepared as a powder composite. Each component part synthesized via the sol-gel method for TiO2, and CuWO4 by co-precipitation assisted hydrothermal method from precursor salts, underwent gentle mechanical agitation. Homogenization of the nanopowder precursors was performed by zirconia ball milling for 2 h. The final material was obtained after annealing at 500 °C for 3.5 h. Structural and morphological characterization of the synthesized material has been achieved employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) N2 adsorption–desorption analysis, Scanning electron microscopy-coupled Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS) for optical characterization. The 0.05 wt.% CuWO4-TiO2 catalyst was investigated for its photocatalytic activity over carbamazepine (CBZ), achieving a degradation of almost 100% after 2 h irradiation. A comparison with pure TiO2 prepared under those same conditions was made. The effect of pH, chemical scavengers, H2O2 as well as contaminant ion effects (anions, cations), and humic acid (HA) was investigated, and their related influences on the photocatalyst efficiency towards CBZ degradation highlighted accordingly.
Highlights
Global technological advancement and improved human social welfare have led to the ubiquity of a group of synthetic and/or naturally occurring compounds not commonly monitored in the environment [1,2,3]
It has been reported in previous studies that the diffraction intensity of CuWO4 reaches a maximum at 500 ◦ C calcination temperature [9]
0.05CuWO4-TiO2 composite was synthesized by co-precipitation assisted hydrothermal method, homogenized in mixing under gentle mechanical agitation, and characterized for structural, morphological, and optical properties employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR), BET, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-vis in DRS mode
Summary
Global technological advancement and improved human social welfare have led to the ubiquity of a group of synthetic and/or naturally occurring compounds not commonly monitored in the environment [1,2,3] These compounds result in known or suspected adverse ecological and/or human health effects and have been identified and named emerging contaminants [2,3,4]. Research centers, and related organizations for the monitoring of emerging environmental substances (NORMAN) maintaining one of the world’s largest database records of CECs in the environment has over the last decade identified and listed over 1036 CEC compounds and their biotransformation products [7]. Carbamazepine (CBZ), 5H-dibenzo[b,f]azepine-5-carboxamide, a dibenzoazepine derivative with structural similarity to tricyclic depressant used for the control of some type of seizures in the management of epileptic patients, has been classified by the NORMAN network as a psychoactive substance of pharmaceutical and personal care product (PCP) [8]
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