Abstract
The present work deals with the photocatalytic degradation of p-nitrophenol as it is a United States Environmental Protection Agency-listed priority pollutant and has adverse environmental and health effects. To eradicate the detrimental environmental impact of p-nitrophenol, the biologically synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were used as a photocatalyst. The degradation of p-nitrophenol was confirmed by decreasing the absorbance value at a characteristic wavelength of 317 nm using the UV-vis spectrophotometer. Reaction parameters such as ZnO photocatalyst concentration of 0.1 g/L at pH 11 in the presence of H2O2 (5 mM) were found to be optimum conditions for p-nitrophenol degradation. The photocatalytic degradation was slowly enhanced in the presence of H2O2 as an electron acceptor. The kinetics of nitrophenol degradation was studied, which follows the pseudo-first-order reaction. The photocatalytic degradation of p-nitrophenol was characterized by using total organic carbon, chemical oxygen demand, and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses. This method is found to be effective as it is environmentally friendly, free of toxic chemicals.
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The instrumental support from the Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Surathkal is acknowledged with gratitude.
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VVK, JPE, and RMB have contributed to the conception and design of the experiment. VVK and SDS performed the experiments, data analysis, and interpretation. The obtained results were discussed with RMB. VVK has been involved in drafting the manuscript with support from RMB and JPE. All authors provided critical feedback and helped to shape the research, analysis, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Kadam, V.V., Shanmugam, S.D., Ettiyappan, J.P. et al. Photocatalytic degradation of p-nitrophenol using biologically synthesized ZnO nanoparticles. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 12119–12130 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10833-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10833-w