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WO3 nanoplates decorated with polyaniline and CdS nanoparticles as a new photocatalyst for degradation of imidacloprid pesticide from water

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Abstract

This study focused on the photocatalytic degradation of imidacloprid (IM) in water as the model pesticides. The effective division of photogenerated charge carriers is important in the photocatalytic reactions. So, a new PANI/WO3-CdS photocatalyst was synthesized by a simple method. The prepared PANI/WO3-CdS nanocomposite was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy compatible with energy dispersive spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Degradation of IM pesticide under visible light irradiation was carried out to investigate the photocatalytic efficiency of the prepared nanocomposite. The effect of operational parameters on the degradation performance of pesticides was studied by response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum conditions for photocatalytic degradation of IM (94.7%) were found to be 10 ppm of IM, 150 mg of PANI/WO3-CdS, and pH = 3.0. The apparent rate constant of IM photodegradation over PANI/WO3-CdS was 0.016 min−1. According to results, PANI/WO3-CdS can serve as an efficient, and recyclable photocatalyst for imidacloprid degradation in an aqueous media.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to the founders of Kerman University, Mr. Alireza Afzalipour, and his wife, Mrs Fakhereh Saba, for their foresight and generosity in training future generations of doctors, engineers, and scientists. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge their thanks to Dr. Parviz Dabiri for his generous support for the research activities of the chemistry laboratories in Kerman University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

    Sanaz Merci, Asma Saljooqi, Tayebeh Shamspur & Ali Mostafavi

  2. Young Research Society, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

    Sanaz Merci & Asma Saljooqi

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  1. Sanaz Merci
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  2. Asma Saljooqi
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  3. Tayebeh Shamspur
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  4. Ali Mostafavi
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Contributions

S. Merci carried out the experiment, and A. Saljooqi wrote the manuscript with support from T. Shamspur and A. Mostafavi.

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Correspondence to Asma Saljooqi.

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Highlights

• The imidacloprid degradation is greatly improved because of the heterojunction with the Z-scheme mechanism.

• Improved mineralization performance by the heterojunction PANI/WO3-CdS.

• The specific surface of the heterojunction catalyst area increases substantially by the strong interaction between WO3 and CdS on the polyaniline surface.

• Investigating effective factors in degradation of imidacloprid by experimental design.

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Merci, S., Saljooqi, A., Shamspur, T. et al. WO3 nanoplates decorated with polyaniline and CdS nanoparticles as a new photocatalyst for degradation of imidacloprid pesticide from water. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 35764–35776 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13031-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13031-4

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