Abstract
A large amount of wastewater from various and discharged sources that are not treated in any way could affect properties of both land and water, causing severe problems for the environment. Advanced oxidation processes seem to be a feasible option to address effluent treatment with regard to salvation of the environment. In this work, a CdO/ZnO/Yb2O3 composite composed of trimetallic semiconductors was synthesized through a simple one-pot hydrophile approach at low temperatures and then was employed as a photocatalyst. The degradation of phenol, a common organic persistent pollutant in industrial wastewater, was efficiently catalyzed in the presence of simulated sunlight. It was demonstrated that the synthesized CdO/ZnO/Yb2O3 photocatalyst was significantly active after 15 min of reaction and facilitated the effective degradation of the phenol. The CdO/ZnO/Yb2O3 photocatalyst achieved 71.5% and 97.81% degradation of the phenol without and with the existence of H2O2, correspondingly. The results show that the synthesized composite possesses high oxygen reduction capability and is available for rapid and potent photodegradation of the organic persistent pollutants such as phenol, with minimal damage to the environment.
Highlights
Contamination of aquatic resources has been recognized among the main concerns of developing and other developed nations
The simple, well-controlled, one-pot hydrothermal approach was adopted for the effective synthesis of CdO/ZnO/Yb2 O3 catalyst at elevated temperatures
After calcination at 600 ◦ C, well-crystallized CdO/ZnO/Yb2 O3 was produced, which is described by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), XPS, FTIR, SEM, and EDS
Summary
Contamination of aquatic resources has been recognized among the main concerns of developing and other developed nations. Large amounts of biological contaminants identified in aquatic bodies (drinkable water processing factories) usually come from distinct segments of industry (food, textile, oil and gas, printing, and medical industries). Different approaches to water treatment are deployed to alleviate disposition of industrial polluted wastewater and reduce the influence of organic persistent pollutants from water to the environment to a minimum. These can be mentioned among others as biological treatment, which requires extended periods of time to bring the wastewater up to specification, filtration processes with the utilization of membranes [4], electrochemical methods [5], adsorption procedures [6], and advanced oxidation processes (AOP) [7]
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