Abstract
The present study focused on developing an efficient photocatalyst to address the concern of pharmaceutical residues in drinking water. ZnO/Kaolin and cerium-doped ZnO/kaolin composites were synthesized using the co-precipitation method with ZnCl2 as the precursor. Characterization of the samples was conducted through FT-IR, XRD, and SEM analysis. The photocatalytic efficiency and the influence of cerium doping were investigated for the removal of moxifloxacin and famotidine, two drugs commonly found in pharmaceutical wastewater. Various parameters including time, pH, and catalyst concentration were optimized to enhance the reaction efficiency. The results demonstrated that the 2% Ce/ZnO/kaolin has the maximum photocatalytic efficiency for the degradation of both drugs. The most effective degradation occurred with a catalyst dose of 2 mg/mL at 10 pH. The synthesized photocatalysts exhibited effective and rapid removal of drugs from aqueous solutions, offering an economical and environmentally friendly solution for purifying pharmaceutical wastewater.
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The authors thank Lahore College for Women University for providing the infrastructure and basic chemicals/instruments to carry out this project.
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SA contributed to conceptualization, supervision, preparation of final draft. NS contributed to methodology, investigation, write up of first draft.
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Ahmad, S., Shoukat, N. Synthesis of cerium doped ZnO/kaolin photocatalysts for the purification of pharmaceutical wastewater. J Mater Sci 59, 86–94 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09145-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09145-4