Sunlit expeditious visible light-mediated photo-fenton degradation of ciprofloxacin by exfoliation of NiCoO and ZnFeO over g-CN matrix: A brief insight on degradation mechanism, degraded product toxicity, and genotoxic evaluation in Allium cepa.

Pharmaceutical pollutant in the environmental water bodies has become a major concern, which causes adverse effect to aquatic entities. This study provides an incisive insight on the photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP) and the development of rationally engineered g-CN-NiCoO-ZnFeO nanocomposite for boosted photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation. The g-CN-NiCoO-ZnFeO nanocomposite was synthesized via ultrasonication-assisted hydrothermal method. The characterization of the as-prepared material was evaluated by XPS, SEM, HR-TEM, PL, FT-IR, EIS, ESR, XRD, BET, and UV-Vis DRS techniques. Furthermore, the effect of catalytic dosage, drug dosage, and pH changes was explored, where g-CN-NiCoO-ZnFeO-10% unveiled excellent visible light photo-Fenton degradation of 92% for CIP at 140 min. The hydroxyl radicals (OH) served as the predominant radical species on the photodegradation of CIP, which was confirmed by performing a radical scavenging test. Furthermore, the degradation efficiency was determined by six consecutive cycle tests, where the nanomaterial exhibited excellent stability with 98.5% reusable efficiency. The degradation of CIP was further scrutinized by GC-MS analysis, where the degraded intermediate products and the possible pathway were elucidated. The degraded product toxicity was determined by ECOSAR program, where the degraded products haven't exhibited any considerable toxic effects. In addition, the genotoxicity of the nanomaterial was determined by treating them with root tips of A. cepa, where it was found to be non-toxic. Here, the prepared g-CN-NiCoO-ZnFeO nanocomposite (CNZ NCs) shows eco-friendly and excellent photo-Fenton activity for environmental applications.