scholarly journals Application of Bi12ZnO20 Sillenite as an Efficient Photocatalyst for Wastewater Treatment: Removal of Both Organic and Inorganic Compounds

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5409
Author(s):  
Oussama Baaloudj ◽  
Noureddine Nasrallah ◽  
Hamza Kenfoud ◽  
Faisal Algethami ◽  
Abueliz Modwi ◽  
...  

This work aims to synthesize and characterize a material that can be used as an effective catalyst for photocatalytic application to remove both organic and inorganic compounds from wastewater. In this context, sillenite Bi12ZnO20 (BZO) in a pure phase was synthesized using the sol–gel method. Before calcination, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis was done to determine the temperature of the formation of the sillenite phase, which was found to be 800 °C. After calcination, the phase was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and then refined using the Rietveld refinement technique. The results prove that BZO crystals have a cubic symmetry with the space group I23 (N°197); the lattice parameters of the structure were also determined. From the crystalline size, the surface area was estimated using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, which was found to be 11.22 m2/g. The formation of sillenite was also checked using the Raman technique. The morphology of the crystals was visualized using electron scanning microscope (SEM) analysis. After that, the optical properties of BZO were investigated by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL); an optical gap of 2.9 eV was found. In the final step, the photocatalytic activity of the BZO crystals was evaluated for the removal of inorganic and organic pollutants, namely hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) and Cefixime (CFX). An efficient removal rate was achieved for both contaminants within only 3 h, with a 94.34% degradation rate for CFX and a 77.19% reduction rate for Cr(VI). Additionally, a kinetic study was carried out using a first-order model, and the results showed that the kinetic properties are compatible with this model. According to these findings, we can conclude that the sillenite BZO can be used as an efficient photocatalyst for wastewater treatment by eliminating both organic and inorganic compounds.

Author(s):  
Satish J. Naik ◽  
Puzy A. Pavaskar ◽  
Arun V. Salker

Abstract This manuscript highlights the structural, electrical and optical properties of Bi2Mo1-xWxO6 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) compounds. These compounds were prepared employing the citrate sol-gel method. These compositions were characterized using thermo-gravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and infrared techniques. The Rietveld refinements of X-ray powder diffraction data determined and confirmed the crystal structure of the compositions. DC electrical conductivity indicated the conduction behaviour and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy confirmed the semiconducting nature of the compounds. Room temperature photoluminescence results exhibited two type of emission namely blue-green and green emission in the visible region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 945 (1) ◽  
pp. 012053
Author(s):  
Cheong Kin Wai ◽  
Leong Kah Hon ◽  
Ling Wong Yong

Abstract Backed by the evolution in the nanotechnology field, membrane modified with nanoparticles as an additive has become increasingly prominent nowadays. The enormous potential of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst in wastewater treatment has been disclosed extensively. In this study, 4 Polyethersulfone (PES) membranes with different concentration of g-C3N4nanoparticles as additive were fabricated and their performances were investigated. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the membrane top surface layer was getting denser with the higher g-C3N4nanoparticles concentration which subsequently decreased the membrane mean pore size, porosity and flux. However the membrane with higher additive concentration was demonstrated a better improvement in anti-fouling properties where the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of the membranes showed an uptrend movement from 23.43% (membrane without additive) to 64.64% (membrane with 6 wt.% of additive). The enhancement of COD and colour removal rate from 61.50 % to 66.50 % and 78.75 % to 83.75 % was also observed in this study where the finding has signified the increased g-C3N4 nanoparticles concentration was constructive in PES membrane modification.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 890
Author(s):  
Mateusz Barczewski ◽  
Olga Mysiukiewicz ◽  
Aleksander Hejna ◽  
Radosław Biskup ◽  
Joanna Szulc ◽  
...  

In this work, thermally expanded vermiculite (TE-VMT) was surface modified and used as a filler for composites with a polylactide (PLA) matrix. Modification of vermiculite was realized by simultaneous ball milling with the presence of two PLA chain extenders, aromatic carbodiimide (KI), and 4,4’-methylenebis(phenyl isocyanate) (MDI). In addition to analyzing the particle size of the filler subjected to processing, the efficiency of mechanochemical modification was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The composites of PLA with three vermiculite types were prepared by melt mixing and subjected to mechanical, thermomechanical, thermal, and structural evaluation. The structure of composites containing a constant amount of the filler (20 wt%) was assessed using FTIR spectroscopy and SEM analysis supplemented by evaluating the final injection-molded samples’ physicochemical properties. Mechanical behavior of the composites was assessed by static tensile test and impact strength hardness measurements. Heat deflection temperature (HDT) test and dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMTA) were applied to evaluate the influence of the filler addition and its functionalization on thermomechanical properties of PLA-based composites. Thermal properties were assessed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), pyrolysis combustion flow calorimetry (PCFC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The use of filler-reactive chain extenders (CE) made it possible to change the vermiculite structure and obtain an improvement in interfacial adhesion and more favorable filler dispersions in the matrix. This translated into an improvement in impact strength and an increase in thermo-mechanical stability and heat release capacity of composites containing modified vermiculites.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1339
Author(s):  
Javier Bayo ◽  
Sonia Olmos ◽  
Joaquín López-Castellanos

This study investigates the removal of microplastics from wastewater in an urban wastewater treatment plant located in Southeast Spain, including an oxidation ditch, rapid sand filtration, and ultraviolet disinfection. A total of 146.73 L of wastewater samples from influent and effluent were processed, following a density separation methodology, visual classification under a stereomicroscope, and FTIR analysis for polymer identification. Microplastics proved to be 72.41% of total microparticles collected, with a global removal rate of 64.26% after the tertiary treatment and within the average retention for European WWTPs. Three different shapes were identified: i.e., microfiber (79.65%), film (11.26%), and fragment (9.09%), without the identification of microbeads despite the proximity to a plastic compounding factory. Fibers were less efficiently removed (56.16%) than particulate microplastics (90.03%), suggesting that tertiary treatments clearly discriminate between forms, and reporting a daily emission of 1.6 × 107 microplastics to the environment. Year variability in microplastic burden was cushioned at the effluent, reporting a stable performance of the sewage plant. Eight different polymer families were identified, LDPE film being the most abundant form, with 10 different colors and sizes mainly between 1–2 mm. Future efforts should be dedicated to source control, plastic waste management, improvement of legislation, and specific microplastic-targeted treatment units, especially for microfiber removal.


Separations ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Chukwuka Bethel Anucha ◽  
Ilknur Altin ◽  
Emin Bacaksız ◽  
Tayfur Kucukomeroglu ◽  
Masho Hilawie Belay ◽  
...  

Abatement of contaminants of emerging concerns (CECs) in water sources has been widely studied employing TiO2 based heterogeneous photocatalysis. However, low quantum energy yield among other limitations of titania has led to its modification with other semiconductor materials for improved photocatalytic activity. In this work, a 0.05 wt.% CuWO4 over TiO2 was prepared as a powder composite. Each component part synthesized via the sol-gel method for TiO2, and CuWO4 by co-precipitation assisted hydrothermal method from precursor salts, underwent gentle mechanical agitation. Homogenization of the nanopowder precursors was performed by zirconia ball milling for 2 h. The final material was obtained after annealing at 500 °C for 3.5 h. Structural and morphological characterization of the synthesized material has been achieved employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) N2 adsorption–desorption analysis, Scanning electron microscopy-coupled Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS) for optical characterization. The 0.05 wt.% CuWO4-TiO2 catalyst was investigated for its photocatalytic activity over carbamazepine (CBZ), achieving a degradation of almost 100% after 2 h irradiation. A comparison with pure TiO2 prepared under those same conditions was made. The effect of pH, chemical scavengers, H2O2 as well as contaminant ion effects (anions, cations), and humic acid (HA) was investigated, and their related influences on the photocatalyst efficiency towards CBZ degradation highlighted accordingly.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Guozhen Zhang ◽  
Xingxing Huang ◽  
Jinye Ma ◽  
Fuping Wu ◽  
Tianhong Zhou

Electrochemical oxidation technology is an effective technique to treat high-concentration wastewater, which can directly oxidize refractory pollutants into simple inorganic compounds such as H2O and CO2. In this work, two-dimensionally stable anodes, Ti/RuO2-IrO2-SnO2, have been developed in order to degrade organic pollutants from pharmaceutical wastewater. Characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the oxide coating was successfully fabricated on the Ti plate surface. Electrocatalytic oxidation conditions of high concentration pharmaceutical wastewater was discussed and optimized, and the best results showed that the COD removal rate was 95.92% with the energy consumption was 58.09 kW·h/kgCOD under the electrode distance of 3 cm, current density of 8 mA/cm2, initial pH of 2, and air flow of 18 L/min.


Author(s):  
Jakub Zdarta ◽  
Katarzyna Jankowska ◽  
Karolina Bachosz ◽  
Oliwia Degórska ◽  
Karolina Kaźmierczak ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose of Review In the presented review, we have summarized recent achievements on the use of immobilized oxidoreductases for biodegradation of hazardous organic pollutants including mainly dyes, pharmaceuticals, phenols, and bisphenols. In order to facilitate process optimization and achievement of high removal rates, effect of various process conditions on biodegradation has been highlighted and discussed. Recent Findings Current reports clearly show that immobilized oxidoreductases are capable of efficient conversion of organic pollutants, usually reaching over 90% of removal rate. Further, immobilized enzymes showed great recyclability potential, allowing their reuse in numerous of catalytic cycles. Summary Collected data clearly indicates immobilized oxidoreductases as an efficient biocatalytic tools for removal of hazardous phenolic compounds, making them a promising option for future water purification. Data shows, however, that both immobilization and biodegradation conditions affect conversion efficiency; therefore, process optimization is required to achieve high removal rates. Nevertheless, we have demonstrated future trends and highlighted several issues that have to be solved in the near-future research, to facilitate large-scale application of the immobilized oxidoreductases in wastewater treatment.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Stefan Windisch-Kern ◽  
Alexandra Holzer ◽  
Christoph Ponak ◽  
Harald Raupenstrauch

The complexity of the waste stream of spent lithium-ion batteries poses numerous challenges on the recycling industry. Pyrometallurgical recycling processes have a lot of benefits but are not able to recover lithium from the black matter since lithium is slagged due to its high oxygen affinity. The presented InduRed reactor concept might be a promising novel approach, since it does not have this disadvantage and is very flexible concerning the chemical composition of the input material. To prove its basic suitability for black matter processing, heating microscope experiments, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry have been conducted to characterize the behavior of nickel rich cathode materials (LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 and LiNi0.33Mn0.33Co0.33O2) as well as black matter from a pretreatment process under reducing conditions. Another experimental series in a lab scale InduRed reactor was further used to investigate achievable transfer coefficients for the metals of interest. The promising results show technically feasible reaction temperatures of 800 ∘C to 1000 ∘C and high recovery potentials for nickel, cobalt and manganese. Furthermore, the slagging of lithium was largely prevented and a lithium removal rate of up to 90% of its initial mass was achieved.


2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (05n06) ◽  
pp. 445-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUHUA FAN ◽  
QUANDE CHE ◽  
FENGQING ZHANG

The (100)-oriented Ca0.4Sr0.6Bi4Ti4O15(C0.4S0.6BTi ) thin film was successfully prepared by a sol-gel method on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate. The orientation and formation of thin films under different annealing schedules were studied using XRD and SEM. XRD analysis indicated that (100)-oriented C0.4S0.6BTi thin film with degree of orientation of I(200)/I(119) = 1.60 was prepared by preannealing the film at 400°C for 3 min followed by rapid thermal annealing at 800°C for 5 min. SEM analysis further indicated that the (100)-oriented C0.4S0.6BTi thin film with a thickness of about 800 nm was mainly composed of equiaxed grains. The remanent polarization and coercive field of the film were 16.1 μC/cm2 and 85 kV/cm, respectively.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1092-1093 ◽  
pp. 972-975
Author(s):  
Jing Yang

According to the problems exist in cyclic utilization of washing wastewater, the coagulation tests utilizing ferric trichloride (FeCl3), alums, poly aluminium chloride (PAC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) are studied, respectively. Experimental results show that PAC was much better than the other coagulants in the removal of LAS and chroma as a single coagulant. Cast 2.5mL PAC(10%) into quantitative washing wastewater, the removal rate of LAS and chroma reach 82.5% and 87.8%, respectively. When mix the every two kinds of coagulants, maintaining the same total amount of coagulant to 2.5mL, cast1.0mL PAC(10%) and 1.5mL alum (10%) into washing wastewater ,the removal rate of LAS and chroma reach 84.1% and 90.0%, respectively.


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