Reza Torkamani; Bagher Aslibeiki; Masih Darbandi; Hamid Naghshara
Abstract
The toxicity of oxytetracycline (OTC) antibiotic remains in the environment and threatens the life of living things. In this research, two series of ZnO nanoparticle catalysts with different particle sizes were prepared.. The structural and optical characteristics of the samples were analyzed and the ...
Read More
The toxicity of oxytetracycline (OTC) antibiotic remains in the environment and threatens the life of living things. In this research, two series of ZnO nanoparticle catalysts with different particle sizes were prepared.. The structural and optical characteristics of the samples were analyzed and the photocatalytic degradation of OTC was investigated under a 100 W visible light irradiation. The samples prepared using zinc nitrate and zinc acetate showed different photocatalytic performance. The catalysts prepared at lower calcination temperatures show higher photocatalytic performance due to the active surface of the particles. The intensity of the peaks in the XRD patterns of samples also increases with increasing calcination temperature, which confirms the increase in the size of the nanoparticles. The decrease in particle size with increasing calcination temperature was confirmed by FESEM images. On the other hand, the band gap energy was reduced by decreasing the calcination temperature, which increases the performance of the photocatalytic activity. The 27 nm ZnO nanoparticles prepared using zinc nitrate showed 100 % degradation efficiency. As a result, we reached the maximum performance of pure ZnO by only controlling the size and morphology, without making nanocomposite or doping different elements.
google is broken
Siavash Fathi; Bagher Aslibeiki; Reza Torkamani
Abstract
In the recent decades, increasing of pollutant in water resources endanger the human life and other living things. Researchers have applied different methods to eliminate the water contaminants. Photocatalytic is one of these methods that have been used widely for wastewater treatment. In this study, ...
Read More
In the recent decades, increasing of pollutant in water resources endanger the human life and other living things. Researchers have applied different methods to eliminate the water contaminants. Photocatalytic is one of these methods that have been used widely for wastewater treatment. In this study, a series of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu doped ZnO nanorods were applied as visible-light-activated catalysts for oxytetracycline (OTC) degradation. Characterization of the nanorods was performed using XRD, FE-SEM, UV-Vis, and PL techniques. The results show that photocatalytic activity of the samples highly depends on morphology, size and band gap energy. The UV–Vis spectroscopy indicate that Fe doping has reduced the band gap energy to 2.91 eV. The variation of band gap permits absorption of low energy photons and excitation of valence band electrons. The photoluminescence spectra reveal that doping has an effective role in inhibiting the recombination of electron/hole pairs during photocatalytic process. The Mn-doped sample exhibits significantly increased photocatalytic activity and greater degradation rate constant (k) in comparison with the pure ZnO.
)