Highly Efficient Photocatalytic and Antimicrobial AgGaCl Tri-Doped ZnO Nanorods for Water Treatment under Visible Light Irradiation

Marlene N. Cardoza-Contreras,Oscar E. Contreras,Samuel Sánchez-Serrano

doi:10.3390/catal10070752

Marlene N. Cardoza-Contreras, Oscar E. Contreras + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/catal10070752

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Abstract

The aim of the present study is to analyze the synergy of antimicrobial elements, such as Ga, Ag and Cl by incorporating them in ZnO nanorods and measuring their antimicrobial and photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation for water treatment. AgGa-doped ZnO nanorods and AgGaCl-doped ZnO nanorods on polyethylene substrate were prepared by a simple and fast microwave assisted synthesis. HCl was used in order to lower the pH of the precursor solution and favor Ga and Cl incorporation in the ZnO nanorods. The synthesized undoped and doped ZnO nanorods were analyzed with SEM, EDX, XRD and CL. The photocatalytic properties of the nanorods were evaluated via methylene blue degradation under visible light irradiation. Antimicrobial activity of the nanorods was measured via growth kinetics of Vibrio parahaemolyticus. It was found that AgGaCl-doped ZnO nanorods improve the methylene blue photo-degradation and above all, the antimicrobial activity of the AgGaCl tri-doped ZnO nanorods showed a lethal effect on the bacteria’s growth. This work shows that AgGaCl NRs are an excellent alternative for the development of sustainable water treatment devices and antimicrobial applications.

Highlights

Water pollution is an increasing and concern issue mainly resulted from human activities, causing serious health, social and economic problem [1,2]
These results showed that the AgGaCl NRs are promising as a potential candidate for the development of sustainable water treatment devices and other antimicrobial applications
125–175 nm when doped with Cl at pH 6.0, the NRs diameters increased when doping with Cl at pH values between of 5.5 and 5.0

Summary

Introduction

Water pollution is an increasing and concern issue mainly resulted from human activities, causing serious health, social and economic problem [1,2]. Among conventional water treatment methods, which focus on removing solid contaminants and killing pathogens, are chlorination, ozonation and ultraviolet irradiation, which have serious limitations. Chlorination is an ineffective method against some highly resistant waterborne pathogens, and tends to form carcinogenic disinfection by products when chlorine is added to water. The use of nanomaterials as photocatalytic materials has gained much attention as an alternative active material in water treatment. Taking advantage of their large specific area and unique properties make them good candidates due to their ability to improve the degradation of organic pollutant molecules through oxidative processes [5,6,7].

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