Fabrication of Solar-Driven new composite Heterostructure CoWO 4 /NCW Photo catalysts for Enhanced Adsorption /Photo Degradation Activity of organic pollutants

Abstract

In this work, abundant natural and industrial materials were used in concert to create a new nanocomposite made of Nanocellulose (NCW) hydrolyzed by nitric acid and cobalt tungstate (CoWO4) prepared by precipitation methods from sodium tungstate and cobalt chloride. The result was a cost-effective nanocomposite used as an adsorbent and photo-degradation with exceptional organic pollutants (OP) in refinery wastewater (RWW). This composite exhibited outstanding mechanical stability and eliminated organic pollutants (OP) by oxidation and adsorbent. All materials were comprehensively characterized through XRD, FTIR, DRS, TGA, BET, EDX, XRD, and FE-SEM analyses. A comparison was made between the nanocomposite's UV and solar light performance, considering factors like temperature, pH, time, dose, and so on. The best conditions were identified: pH levels of 8–9, time of 120 minutes, temperature of 70°C, and dose of 1.0 gm. Upon applying these optimized conditions to RWW samples, the high removal ratios were achieved: 97.4, 90.3, 64.2, and 49% for CoWO4/NCW, NCW, NaOH/CW, and CW respectively. These findings underscore the composite's potential as an economical and efficient biosorbent for OP elimination, alongside its effectiveness in solar-assisted degradation processes.