Anisha Russelraj; Sibmah Stalin; Kirupa Vasam Jino
Abstract
In view of growing environmental issues there is a requirement for the immediate eradication of pesticides and its residues from local and commercial streamlets. Quinalphos is one of the most common organophosphorous pesticide especially used in agricultural fields bring about a great impact in environment ...
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In view of growing environmental issues there is a requirement for the immediate eradication of pesticides and its residues from local and commercial streamlets. Quinalphos is one of the most common organophosphorous pesticide especially used in agricultural fields bring about a great impact in environment thereby affecting the health of aquatic organisms and humans. Among the various type of method that has been implemented, photocatalytic reaction is considered as the most relevant technique for the removal of toxic organic contaminants. In this study, modified TiO2 has been synthesized by doping with Fe, S using a simple one-step sol-gel method. The incorporation of Fe3+ and the distribution of S nonmetal in TiO2 crystal lattice were affirmed by the XRD, SEM and FT-IR analysis. The band gap energy of Fe/S/TiO2 nanocomposite has been narrowed to 2.5eV and its photocatalytic activity was extended to the visible region. Thus Fe/S/TiO2 photocatalyst was employed for the eradication of Quinalphos and the complete mineralization was achieved in 12 min of visible light irradiation and it is analyzed by TOC analysis. Furthermore, the reusable feature of the catalyst was demonstrated to be utilised for twelve cycles. The penetration of pesticide residues on protein pockets of fishes was predicted by molecular docking. Furthermore, the reduction in toxicity level of the effluent was examined by using aquatic organisms. Thus Fe/S/TiO2 nanocomposite is an efficient photocatalyst to oxidize emerging organic contaminants due to its high synergetic effect of visible light absorbing tendency and low recombination effect of charge carriers.
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