Highly efficient novel heterojunction catalyst in the elimination of antibiotics under the photo-Fenton-like process

Abstract

The antibiotic residues in aquatic environments pose severe environmental concerns due to their ability to mediate antibiotic resistance genes through the microbes. The prime concern is the efficient and sustainable treatment of these residual antibiotics from waterbodies. The study aims to derive a novel bimetallic heterogeneous nano-catalyst, Ag0/Fe0/OSBC, by simple impregnation method in a greener process that involves natural phytochemicals of Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam leaves. The phytochemicals readily synthesize in in-situ Fe and Ag nanoparticles. Various advanced analytical tools reasonably characterize the synthesized materials. The study evaluates insights into heterojunction catalyst efficiency in degrading the sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and amoxicillin (AMX) under the advanced oxidation process. The photo-Fenton-like process assesses the elimination efficacy of the catalyst under dark, LED-VIS, and UV-A light conditions. The optimized batch operation parameters include solution pH 3.0, hydrogen peroxide dosage 0.10 mL/L (SMX); 0.25 mL/L (AMX), catalyst dosage 250.0 mg/L (SMX); 150.0 mg/L (AMX), and pollutant concentration of 2.0 mg/L. The parametric investigations offer insights into the degradation process's mechanisms and, the removal efficacy achieves 82.6 % and 92.8 %, respectively, for SMX and AMX. The process of mineralization using UV-A light achieves 68.0 % and 70.4 % for SMX and AMX, respectively. Minimal corrosion of Fe from the catalyst shows the catalyst's enhanced applicability and stability. The repeated cycles enabled a sustainable catalytic process, and real implications showed a higher selectivity of the process.