Department of Chemistry, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Mohali, Punjab, 140413, India.
University Centre for Research & Development (UCRD), Department of Chemistry, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Mohali, Punjab, 140413, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 May;31(21):31562-31576. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-33196-y. Epub 2024 Apr 18.
The escalating demand for the antibiotic drug tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) contributes to an increased release of its residues into land and water bodies, which poses risks to both aquatic life and human health. Therefore, it is precedence to effectively degrade TCH residues to protect environment from their long-term impacts. In this aspect, the present study entails the synthesis of zirconia (ZrO) nanostructures and focuses on the enhancement in the catalytic performance of ZrO nanostructures by employing reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as a solid support to synthesize ZrO-enriched RGO-based photocatalysts (ZrO-RGO) for the degradation of TCH. The study delves into comprehensive spectroscopic and microscopic investigations and their photodegradation assessments. Powder XRD and HR-TEM studies depicted the phase crystallinity and also displayed uniform distribution of ZrO nanostructures with spherical morphology within ZrO-RGO. This corresponds to high surface-to-volume ratios, providing a substantial number of active sites for light absorption and generation of e-h pairs. Moreover, the heterojunctions created between RGO and ZrO nanostructures promoted the interspecies electron transfer which prolonged the recombination time of e and h than pure ZrO nanostructures, accounted for enhanced degradation of TCH using ZrO-RGO. The photocatalytic activity of as-synthesized materials were examined under visible and UV light irradiation. The degradation efficiency of ~ 73.82% was achieved using ZrO-RGO-based photocatalyst with rate constant k = 0.007023 min under visible-light illumination. Moreover, under UV-light, the degradation rate was explicated to be k = 0.01017 min with ~ 85.56% degradation of TCH antibiotics within 180 mins. Hence, the synthesized ZrO-enriched RGO-based photocatalysts represents a promising potential for the effective degradation of pharmaceutical compounds, particularly TCH under visible and UV-light irradiation.
盐酸四环素（TCH）抗生素药物需求的不断增长导致其残留大量释放到陆地和水体中，这对水生生物和人类健康都构成了风险。因此，有效降解 TCH 残留以保护环境免受其长期影响至关重要。在这方面，本研究涉及氧化锆（ZrO）纳米结构的合成，并侧重于通过使用还原氧化石墨烯（RGO）作为固体支撑物来增强 ZrO 纳米结构的催化性能，以合成富含 ZrO 的基于 RGO 的光催化剂（ZrO-RGO）用于降解 TCH。该研究进行了全面的光谱和显微镜研究及其光降解评估。粉末 XRD 和高分辨率-TEM 研究描述了相结晶度，并显示了 ZrO 纳米结构的均匀分布，其形态为球形，位于 ZrO-RGO 内。这对应于高的比表面积，为光吸收和产生 e-h 对提供了大量的活性位点。此外，RGO 和 ZrO 纳米结构之间形成的异质结促进了物种间的电子转移，从而延长了 e 和 h 的复合时间，与纯 ZrO 纳米结构相比，这解释了使用 ZrO-RGO 增强 TCH 的降解。在可见光和紫外光照射下，对合成材料的光催化活性进行了测试。使用 ZrO-RGO 基光催化剂，在可见光照射下，降解效率达到73.82%，速率常数 k = 0.007023 min。此外，在紫外光下，降解速率为 k = 0.01017 min，在 180 分钟内 TCH 抗生素的降解率达到85.56%。因此，合成的富含 ZrO 的基于 RGO 的光催化剂代表了在可见光和紫外光照射下有效降解药物化合物，特别是 TCH 的有前途的潜力。
