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UV and visible-assisted photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants in the presence of rational designed biogenic Fe3O4-Au nanocomposite

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Abstract

In this study, we designed Fe3O4 nanoparticles and heterogeneous Fe3O4-Au nanocomposites with a mean size of 21 and 27 nm that synthesized by Foeniculum vulgare seed extract to photodegrade organic micropollutants under UV and visible light irradiation. The physiochemical characteristics of biogenic nanoparticles/nanocomposite are described by XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis, SEM, EDX, and X-ray elemental mapping. In the presence of nanoparticles and nanocomposites under UV irradiation, the total degradation of contaminants is about 85–90% after 2100 s, while under visible light irradiation, degradation efficiencies are about 70–85% after 4800-s irradiation. Total organic carbon analysis results confirmed photodegradation efficacies. Also, the scavenger’s experiments show that hydroxyl radical is the most important specie in the degradation of pollutant model. It can be concluded clearly that Fe3O4 green nanoparticles and Fe3O4-Au green nanocomposite are very simple and effective photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants in very short time under illumination.

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Funding

This paper is supported by National Institute for Medical Research and Development, Iran (NIMAD) with Grant No. 965364.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Student Research Committee, Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Nutrition and Food Science, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Mohammad Yousefi

  2. Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Hamed Zandavar & Seied Mahdi Pourmortazavi

  3. Chemistry Department, Yasouj University, Yasouj, 75918-74831, Iran

    Hamid Reza Rajabi & Farideh Sajadiasl

  4. Center of Excellence in Electrochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Ganjali

  5. Biosensor Research Center, Endocrinology & Metabolism Molecular-Cellular Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Ganjali

  6. Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1411713137, Iran

    Somayeh Mirsadeghi

Authors
  1. Mohammad Yousefi
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  2. Hamed Zandavar
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  3. Seied Mahdi Pourmortazavi
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  4. Hamid Reza Rajabi
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  5. Farideh Sajadiasl
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  6. Mohammad Reza Ganjali
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  7. Somayeh Mirsadeghi
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Contributions

MY, HZ, HRR, and FS: resources, formal analysis, and investigation. SM: conceptualization, methodology, writing - original draft, and writing - review & editing. MRG: major contributor in review & editing and SMP: validation, writing - review & editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Seied Mahdi Pourmortazavi or Somayeh Mirsadeghi.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Sami Rtimi

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Yousefi, M., Zandavar, H., Pourmortazavi, S.M. et al. UV and visible-assisted photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants in the presence of rational designed biogenic Fe3O4-Au nanocomposite. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 33344–33354 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12932-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12932-8

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