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In the present work, the use of nanocomposite polymeric filaments based on 100% recycled solid polystyrene everyday products, enriched with TiO2 nanoparticles with mass concentrations up to 40% w/w, and the production of 3D photocatalytic structures using a typical fused deposition modeling (FDM)-type 3D printer are reported. We provide evidence that the fabricated 3D structures offer promising photocatalytic properties, indicating that the proposed technique is indeed a novel low-cost alternative route for fabricating large-scale photocatalysts, suitable for practical real-life applications.

The present paper reports a novel approach for fabrication of eco-friendly ZnO nanoparticles onto three-dimensional (3D)-printed polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds/structures. Several alcohol-based traditional Greek liquors were used to achieve the corrosion of metallic zinc collected from a typical galvanic anode to obtain photocatalytic active nanostructured ZnO, varying from water, to Greek “ouzo” and “raki”, and pure ethanol, in combination with “Baker’s ammonia” (ammonium bicarbonate), sold worldwide in every food store. The photocatalytic active ZnO nanostructures onto three-dimensional (3D)-printed PLA scaffolds were used to achieve the degradation of 50 ppm paracetamol in water, under UV irradiation. This study provides evidence that following the proposed low-cost, eco-friendly routes for the fabrication of large-scale photocatalysts, an almost 95% degradation of 50 ppm paracetamol in water can be achieved, making the obtained 3D ZnO/PLA structures excellent candidates for real life environmental applications. This is the first literature research report on a successful attempt of using this approach for the engineering of low-cost photocatalytic active elements for pharmaceutical contaminants in waters.