Removal of cetirizine dihydrochloride from different matrices waters using BiO/TiO photocatalyst under simulated solar irradiation: Kinetics, mechanism, and effect of environmental media.

In this study, the photodegradation of cetirizine dihydrochloride (CET) by BiO/TiO heterojunctions under simulated solar light irradiation (300-800nm) was examined in detail for the first time. A hydrothermal synthesis of the photocatalyst was carried out, and several analytical techniques were used to characterize the product. The resulting BiO/TiO photocatalyst effectively removed CET from an aqueous solution. The BiO/TiO (5.0%/95.0%) ratio exhibited the highest photocatalytic performance for CET degradation, degrading 75.85% of CET after 60 min of irradiation, with a high pseudo-first-order rate constant (k = 0.022 min; t = 31.50 min; natural pH). Moreover, TOC decreased by 40.45% after 420 min of irradiation. The BiO/TiO photocatalyst has also been proven effective in degrading CET in different real aqueous matrices (Seawater (99.89%) > spring water (68.44%) > tap water (52.62%)), and the degradation under natural solar irradiation is more effective and faster than under artificial irradiation. Additionally, the BiO/TiO photocatalyst demonstrated excellent photo-stability in a five-cycle photocatalytic experiment. The influence of various parameters showed that the removal of CET was heightened with a dose of 1 g/L of the BiO/TiO and enhanced under acidic conditions (pH = 2.3). Moreover, the involvement of different reactive species was investigated by introducing diverse scavengers, revealing that hydroxyl radicals and photo-holes were the main reactive species involved in the CET photodegradation process over the BiO/TiO photocatalyst. The primary photodegradation byproducts were identified using HPLC-MS analysis, and a possible mechanism was proposed.