Rapid photodegradation of linezolid antibiotic and methylene blue dye over Pt nanoparticles/polypyrrole-carbon black/ZnO novel visible light photocatalyst

Abstract

Exhaustive efforts are urgently anticipated in photocatalysis to tackle the present grave environmental problems especially water pollution. The proposed work aims to provide decidedly active visible light inclined ternary photocatalyst consists of ZnO nanostructure having admirable photocatalytic activity merely doped with polypyrrole-carbon black (PPy-C) and Pt nanoparticles for environmental concerns. Pt and PPy-C doped ZnO ternary framework was created via a reformed sol-gel route and a facile ultrasonication methodology. The XRD examination revealed that ZnO possesses a hexagonal wurtzite structure, while FTIR and XPS investigations established the efficacious formation of ternary framework among Pt, PPy-C and ZnO nanostructures. The TEM exploration displayed that Pt nanoparticles (3–8 nm) were successfully disseminated on ZnO nanostructures (~20–120 nm) associated with spongy dumbbell shape PPy-C, recommending the ternary photocatalyst development. The UV–vis spectroscopic analysis showed a lowering in band-gap energies upon Pt and PPy-C incorporation. This newly synthesized Pt@PPy-C/ZnO photocatalyst has been successfully employed to photo-catalytically treat linezolid (an antibiotic drug) and methylene blue (MB) dye using visible-light. This Pt@PPy-C/ZnO photocatalyst showed amazing activity with 94.0% elimination of linezolid drug in just 40 min with ultrafast removal rate that is approximately 1.67 fold than undoped ZnO. Moreover, this Pt@PPy-C/ZnO ternary framework has proven to be very influential in removing MB using visible light irradiation.