Green synthesis of zero iron nanoparticles and its application in the degradation of Sulphacetamide by using of PS/nZVI process

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, oak leaf extract was used as a reducing agent in the green synthesis of zero iron nanoparticles (nZVI). The morphology characteristic of the nZVI was determined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to crystalline structure and functional group analysis. After that, degradation of the sulphacetamide (STM) was investigated by using the persulphate (PS)/nZVI process. The results showed that the PS/nZVI process effectively degraded STM (98.5%) at pH: 3, PS: 1.5 mM, nZVI: 2 g/L, and STM: 25 mg/L in a contact time of 90 min. The kinetic study also showed that the degradation process followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Therefore, it can be concluded that the PS/nZVI process can be used to remove drug contaminants from aquatic environments.