Recoverable palladium–gold nanocomposite based on microcrystalline cellulose for sono-catalytic degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants
Zehbah A. Al‐Ahmed, Gamil A.A. Al‐Hazmi, Alaa M. Munshi, Nasser A. Alamrani, Salhah D. Al‐Qahtani, Turki M. Habeebullah, Nashwa M. El‐Metwaly
Abstract
Sonolysis is ascribed as one of the eco-friendly techniques for degradation of water pollutants, however, It exhibits a negative techno-economic assessment, meaning that, it is limitedly applicable at the commercial scale. The current study is considered with enhancement the techno-economic assessment of sonolysis degradation of pharmaceutical wastes (paracetamol and sulfamethazine) via exploitation of recoverable palladium-gold nanocomposites based on microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). MCC was currently applied as a solid supporting mold for preparation of the required nanocomposites to be applicable as recoverable template. Herein, a comparable study is presented for affinity of gold nanoparticles containing microcrystalline cellulose ([email protected]), palladium nanoparticles containing microcrystalline cellulose ([email protected]) versus palladium & gold nanoparticles containing microcrystalline cellulose ([email protected]) in sonolysis degradation of pharmaceutical wastes. The superiority of MCC for ingraining of NPs was approved via Scanning Electron Microscope, Energy Dispersive X-ray, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. Kinetic parameters for removal the studied pharmaceutical wastes were also studied. The recoverability of the synthesized nanocomposites as catalysts was also approved. [email protected] exhibited the highest efficiency for degradation with 99% for paracetamol (sulfamethazine 98%) was sono-catalytically degraded within 90 min of rate constant of 31.7 ± 1.5 × 10−3 min−1 (sulfamethazine 52.5 ± 4.1 × 10−3 min−1). For [email protected], the sono-catalytic degradation of paracetamol was lowered from 249.5 mg/g to 217.8 mg/g to be reduced with only 12.7% after recycling for 4 times, while, the sono-catalytic degradation of sulfamethazine was lowered from 247.5 mg/g to 204.1 mg/g to be reduced with only 17.5%. Reaction mechanisms for ingraining NPs within MCC matrix and the sonolysis degradation of the tested pharmaceutical wastes were elucidated.