Green synthesis of stable CuFe2O4/CuO-rGO heterostructure photocatalyst using basil seeds as chemo-reactors for improved oxytetracycline degradation

Abstract

Complex structures of pharmaceutical antibiotics prevent their natural degradation by traditional remediation strategies, resulting in persistent environmental pollution and reproduction of destructive bacteria, that pose hazardous human health consequences. As a workaround, basil seed biomass resource-derived CuFe2O4/CuO-graphene like carbon S-scheme heterostructure, aiming to eliminate the oxytetracycline (OTC) antibiotic in a persulfate activation helical plug flow photoreactor (HPFPR), is developed via a hydrothermally coupled pyrolysis approach. The champion CuFe2O4/CuO-graphene like carbon manifests the best photo-degradation efficiency (87.49% within 90 min) with the photoreaction rate constant of 0.0495 min−1 for OTC degradation. The desirable photo-degradation efficiency was assigned to the higher visible-light absorbance, built-in interfacial electric field and reduced recombination of charge carriers, and superior redox capability due to the S-scheme heterojunction. The HPFPR's performance was verified by a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and central composite design (CCD). As proposed CuFe2O4/CuO-rGO demonstrated significant reusability and stability owing to the presence of a carbon shell. The scale-up in-situ synthesis of environmentally friendly, large-scale metal oxide heterojunctions in natural carbon supports offer novel insights in photocatalytic production for promising water treatment applications.