Ultrasound‐assisted Synthesis of Ag‐ZnS/rGO and its Utilization in Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Under Visible Light Irradiation

Abstract

Recent improvements based on heterojunction nanocomposites have opened new possibilities in photocatalysis. In this research, an ultrasound-assisted coprecipitation method was used to fabricate silver, zinc sulfide and reduced graphene oxide (Ag-ZnS/rGO) nanocomposite, and characterization results indicated that 3% Ag-ZnS spherical nanoparticles are successfully embedded in rGO matrix. The potential of the Ag-ZnS/rGO, as a visible light active photocatalyst, was assessed through optimizing degradation of Tetracycline (TC) by response surface methodology. It was found that the photocatalytic degradation of TC increased with an increase in the amount of nanocomposite and irradiation time, whereas it decreased with increasing the initial TC concentration. Under the optimal conditions (10 mg L of TC, 1.25 g L of Ag-ZnS/rGO, at pH = 7, and irradiation duration 110 min), more than 90% of the TC was degraded. The study of the mechanism of the photocatalytic process disclosed that the synergistic role of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) induced by Ag nanoparticles and p-type semiconductor feature of rGO leads to ZnS semiconductor stimulation in the visible light region. Eventually, a pseudo-first order kinetics model was developed based on the proposed mechanism. The obtained results highlight the role of Ag-ZnS/rGO nanophotocatalyst toward degradation of some antibiotics under visible light.

Green synthesis of chitosan/erythritol/graphene oxide composites for simultaneous removal of some toxic species from simulated solution

“…Therefore, graphene oxide was selected-an effective candidate of the carbon family-due to its exceptional structure (2-D, one-atom-thick structure), superior mechanical qualities, and total surface area for chitosan modification (Sayed et al 2022c). Graphene oxide (GO) has been widely employed to eliminate metal ions, dyes, and other contaminants (Gad and Nasef 2021, Kameli and Mehrizad 2019, Mehrizad and Gharbani 2014. The chitosan-GO grafted materials were nominated due to functional group variation (OH, H, CO, and NH 2 ) in the composite matrix, which can interact with many pollutants in different ways Jiang 2016, Zhao et al 2016).…”

G-C3N4/Ag@CoWO4: A novel sunlight active ternary nanocomposite for potential photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B dye

“…Recently, profound consideration has been gained by carbon-containing compounds for their significant impact as components in admiration of different conservational applications [19]. For example the use of zeolite-based semiconductor photocatalysts [5,8,20], polyaniline based composite material [21], MWCNTs and carbon nanofiber photocatalysts [22,23], graphitic carbon nitride based composite materials [4][5][6]24], graphene oxide supported photocatalysts [10,[25][26][27][28], and doped semiconductor photocatalysts [29,30] have been used for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of various organic pollutants. The suitability of 0D, 1D, and 2D nanocarbon semiconductor composites has been specified by many scientists in perspective to their exceptional photocatalytic potential towards energy generation and in pollutant degradation [26,31].…”