Photocatalytic continuous degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants by zeolite/Fe3O4/CuS/CuWO4 nanocomposite under direct sunlight
Alyaa H. Ali, Abeer I. Alwared
Abstract
• Levofloxacin and acetaminophen were selected as a typical contaminants for simulating the contaminated water. • Zeolite/Fe3O4/CuS/CuWO4 p-n heterojunction composite were fabricated by co-precipitation and hydrothermal methodologies. • Photocatalytic degradation process was carried out in a continuous- mode reactor under solar irradiation. • Studying the effect of different parameters, on the removal efficiency. The study investigated solar photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants from aqueous solutions using Zeolite/Fe 3 O 4 /CuS/CuWO 4 nanocomposite. The synergistic effect of factors such as initial levofloxacin and acetaminophen concentration, flow rate, and irradiation intensity were scrutinized in a continuous solar reactor. Under these conditions, the maximum removal was 84.77 % for acetaminophen and 73.26 % for LEVO at 220 and 200 min, respectively, at 5 mL/minute flow rate. In addition, acetaminophen real wastewater which had high concentrations of COD was pretreated as an effective process 51.38 %. This work enriched Zeolite/Fe 3 O 4 /CuS/CuWO 4 heterojunction photocatalysts and provided a promising method to eliminate pharmaceutical pollutants from aqueous solution.