Study on fabrication of ZnO@TiO2 nanocomposite for perozone degradation of amoxicillin from aqueous solution

Abstract

In this study, a simple method for fabrication of a ZnO@TiO₂ nanocomposite was developed to degrade amoxicillin (AMX) from aqueous solution by heterogeneous photocatalytic perozone under UV irradiation (O₃/H₂O₂/ZnO@TiO₂/UV). ZnO nanoparticles were formed by the sol-gel method. The ZnO-NPs were then composited with commercial TiO₂ at modification ratios of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% of ZnO-NPs to generate ZnO@TiO₂ nanocomposites. The physical-chemical characteristics of ZnO, TiO₂, and ZnO@TiO₂ at the optimal modification ratio were determined using S BET , SEM, EDX, and XRD analysis. The catalytic activity of ZnO@TiO₂ was evaluated by degradation of AMX in an O3/H 2O2/ZnO@TiO₂/UV system. The results showed that 10%ZnO@TiO₂ exhibited the highest catalytic activity in degradation (in term of COD removal) of AMX with about 80% for 70 min of reaction time. This efficiency was higher than that of both systems using ZnO or TiO₂ only by double. This primary finding demonstrates the feasibility of 10%ZnO@TiO₂ photocatalysts in perozone systems to degrade persistent organic compounds in practical applications.