Diclofenac sodium is an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to cure pain in various treatments. The remarkable potential of this pain-killer leads to its excessive use and, therefore, a persistent water contaminant. Its presence in aqueous bodies is hazardous for both humans and the environment because it causes the growth of harmful drug-resistant bacteria in water. Herein, we present a comparative study of the ZnO and ZnFeO as photocatalysts for the degradation of diclofenac sodium, along with their structural and morphological studies. A simple co-precipitation method was used for the synthesis of ZnO and ZnFeO and characterized by various analytical techniques. For instance, the UV-Vis study revealed the absorption maxima of ZnO at 320 nm, which was shifted to a longer wavelength region at 365 nm for zinc ferrite. The optical band gaps obtained from the Tauc plot indicated that the incorporation of iron has led to a decreased band gap of zinc ferrite (2.89 eV) than pure ZnO (3.14 eV). The metal-oxygen linkages shown by FTIR indicated the formation of desired ZnO and ZnFeO, which was further confirmed by XRD. It elucidated the typical hexagonal structure for ZnO and spinel cubic structure for ZnFeO with an average crystallite of 31 nm and 44 nm for ZnO and ZnFeO, respectively. The micrographs obtained by SEM showed rough spherical particles of ZnO, whereas for ZnFeO flower-like clustered particles were observed. The photocatalytic investigation against diclofenac sodium revealed the higher degradation efficiency of ZnFeO (61.4%) in only 120 min, whereas ZnO degraded only 48.9% of the drug. Moreover, zinc ferrite has shown good recyclability and was stable up to five runs of photodegradation with a small loss (3.9%) of photocatalytic activity. The comparison of two catalysts has suggested the promising role of zinc ferrite in wastewater remediation to eliminate hazardous pharmaceuticals.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114500 | DOI Listing |
Discov Nano
January 2025
Department of Chemical Engineering, Military Technical College (MTC), Cairo, Egypt.
The world is now facing a water scarcity crisis due to waste, pollution, and uneven distribution of freshwater resources, which are limited. Thus, the creation of innovative, economical, and effective methods for purifying water is crucial. Here, the photo-assisted degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light and UV was achieved by using RGO photocatalyst loaded with ZnCuFeO in three different loaded 10%, 20%, and 30% called MRGO 10, MRGO 20, and MRGO 30.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
To tackle the challenges of increasing the efficiency of photocatalysts, a ternary magnetic heterojunction photocatalyst containing spinel cobalt and zinc ferrites, and zeolite (CZZ) was designed and fabricated. The physicochemical properties of the novel photocatalyst were verified using characterization techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDS mapping, N adsorption-desorption, VSM, PL, and UV-Vis DRS. The CZZ photocatalyst exhibited a significant Cr (VI) reduction rate of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Mater Chem A Mater
December 2024
Department of Materials Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva 8410500 Israel
Zinc ferrite (ZnFeO, ZFO) has gained attention as a candidate material for photoelectrochemical water oxidation. However, champion devices have achieved photocurrents far below that predicted by its bandgap energy. Herein, strong optical interference is employed in compact ultrathin film (8-14 nm) Ti-doped ZFO films deposited on specular back reflectors to boost photoanode performance through enhanced light trapping, resulting in a roughly fourfold improvement in absorption as compared to films deposited on transparent substrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDalton Trans
December 2024
Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, University of Rzeszow, Pigonia 1, Rzeszow PL35-310, Poland.
In this work, we are showing the results of the X- and Q-band electron magnetic resonance measurements of ultra-small ZnMnFeO nanoparticles ( 8 nm) with a very narrow size distribution. The chosen synthetic route allows for precise structural modifications with a broad concentration range ( = 0, 0.2, 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Top Med Chem
December 2024
Center for Biotechnology, Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, 751003, Odisha, India.
Introduction/objective: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a persistent global health challenge, with an increasing incidence of cases and limitations in current treatment strategies. Traditional therapy involves long drug treatments that can cause side effects and lead to drug-resistant strains, making treatment less effective. This study aimed to explore the therapeutic potential of a novel nanoparticle-based delivery system for Thymol (THY), a natural antibacterial bioactive molecule, to combat Mycobacterium smegmatis, a model organism for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
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