Visible-light-sensitive highly-efficient photocatalytic degradation of hazardous contaminant fast yellow AB in industrial wastewater using zinc ferrite nano-photocatalyst: synthesis, characterization and removal performance
Nargis Jamila, Rabid Ullah, Fatima Khitab, Naveed Ahmad, Farooq Ahmad, Muhammad Siddique Afridi, Farina Kanwal, Naeem Khan
Abstract
The development of nano-photocatalytic composites has shown great potential to circumvent the bottlenecks in industrial wastewater treatment. However, their implications have not yet been fully understood. In this study, paramagnetic zinc ferrite was synthesized and used as a photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of Fast Yellow AB (FY-AB). The synthesized nano photocatalyst was characterized using various analytical techniques such as Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, band gap, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Rays Diffraction (XRD) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Different operational parameters, such as pH, initial pollutant concentration, photocatalyst dosage, and scavengers, were investigated concerning the photocatalytic degradation of FY-AB. The results showed over 80% photocatalytic degradation at pH 3.0 using 7 mM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 20 µg/mL of FY-AB within 40 min. The total organic carbon removal efficiency was more than 78% under the same operating conditions. Furthermore, after three cycles, the zinc ferrite catalyst maintained 69% of its initial photocatalytic activity and performed well for each reuse. The kinetic modeling was piloted, and results revealed that the photocatalytic degradation of industrial dye followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic model with R2 of 0.945. These findings revealed that integrating paramagnetic zinc ferrite under visible-light-sensitive photocatalytic degradation of emerging contaminants holds excellent potential for wastewater treatment, catering to human consumption and industrial applications for diverse wastewater treatment needs.