Photocatalytic oxidation of atrazine using BaTiO3 -MWCNT nanocomposites under visible light

Abstract

Despite the importance of Atrazine (AT) as herbicide, it represents crucial danger for the different living things. Therefore, many studies have been completed to treat the polluted systems from such herbicide. In this research, sol-gel method was applied simply to synthesize BaTiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) that were furtherly incorporated with Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) to prepare BaTiO3@MWCNT photocatalyst. The physicochemical, photoelectronic, photocatalytic and textural properties of BaTiO3 have been improved as a result of the incorporation with MWCNT. Evidently, inclusion of the optimized percentage of MWCNT (3.0 wt %) with BaTiO3 is acknowledged as a successful way to enhance the capability of BaTiO3 to absorb visible light such that BaTiO3@MWCNT-3 wt.% photocatalyst exhibited declined bandgap (2.64 eV) that allows improved absorbance in visible region. Furthermore, 2.0 gL–1 of the optimized nanocomposite accomplished efficiently the photocatalytic oxidation of AT when illuminated by visible light for 40 min. The recycled BaTiO3@MWCNT nanocomposite was able to achieve the photocatalytic oxidation of AT up to five times without any loss of the photocatalytic performance affirming its great stability and durability as well as its appropriateness for the industrial applications. The enhanced characteristics possessed by the synthesized nanocomposites could be correlated to different factors such as the enlarged surface area, the hindered recombination between the photoinduced charges as well as the reduced bandgap energy. This study proposes an eco-friendly regime to remove some hazardous herbicides from the aquatic systems.