Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of zinc oxide nanoparticles as a photocatalyst for photodegradation of two model non-ionic surfactants (Triton X-100 and C12E10). The first part of the investigation was focused on the synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanoparticles, since its crystalline structure strongly impacts its photocatalytic properties. Based on the results of the XRD analysis, it was concluded that the obtained material occurred in the form of hexagonal wurtzite with a polycrystalline structure. FT-IR and XPS analyses were used to elucidate and confirm the nanomaterial structure, whereas investigation of N2 adsorption/desorption and SEM/TEM imaging allowed to establish that the synthesized ZnO was characterized as a mesoporous material with uniform, spherical shape and particle size fluctuating between 90 and 130 nm. The second part of the study included spectrophotometric assessment of the photodegradation process. The use of the obtained ZnO nanoparticles allowed to achieve efficient photodegradation of both C12E10 (92%) and Triton X-100 (82%) after 1 h of UV irradiation. The Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism was used to describe the reaction kinetics. Subsequent LC-MS/MS analysis of the residues indicated that the degradation mechanism is most likely based on both central fission of the surfactant molecules with further terminal oxidation of poly(ethylene glycol) and terminal oxidation leading to carboxylic derivatives of surfactants.
Highlights
Surface active agents are among the most commonly used products in the chemical industry and possess a broad spectrum of practical applications (Rosen and Kunjappu 2012)
In the framework of this study, for the first time, we report the application of ZnO nanoparticles as an effective catalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of non-ionic surfactants
Zinc oxide is a compound that possesses a tetrahedral bonding configuration corresponding to the sp3 covalent bonding (Ong et al 2018; Özgür et al 2018), but this material exhibits a substantial ionic character that tends to increase the bandgap beyond the expected from the covalent bonding (Özgür et al 2018)
Summary
Surface active agents (surfactants) are among the most commonly used products in the chemical industry and possess a broad spectrum of practical applications (Rosen and Kunjappu 2012). The versatility of surfactants results from their specific structure and properties, which allow for emulsification, micellization, wetting and reduction of surface tension (Rosen and Kunjappu 2012). 2016; Rios et al 2018; Shukla and Trivedi 2018), including humans (Cserati et al 2002; Khunt et al 1993) reported that surfactants alter soil chemistry and soil biology even at low concentrations and, as a result, significantly suppress the development of plant roots. Several studies regarding the aquatic toxicity of surfactants indicate that these compounds induce oxidative stress and tend to bioaccumulate in fish (Shukla and Trivedi 2018), which act as an exposure gateway to the human consumers (Tan et al 2010)
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