High-efficient photocatalytic degradation of tamoxifen and doxorubicin by novel ternary heterogeneous GO@Fe₃O₄@CeO₂ photocatalyst

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are a new class of water contaminants that need to be effectively removed. This study combines GO@Fe₃O₄ with CeO₂ nanoparticles via a simple procedure known as heterogeneous visible-light-driven photocatalyst. The photocatalytic potential of the GO@Fe₃O₄@CeO₂ was examined via photodegradation of tamoxifen (TMX) and doxorubicin (DOX) under visible-light excitation. The crystallinity and morphology of the synthesized photocatalyst was characterized utilizing SEM, EDS, XRD, FTIR, VSM, and UV–vis. The UV–Vis analyses provided the bandgap value of 3.17 eV for GO@Fe₃O₄@CeO₂. Then, the influence of some key factors such as pH (3–10), photocatalyst dose (0.006-0.04 g), and time (0-120) were studied. The findings indicated that TMX and DOX degradation via GO@Fe₃O₄@CeO₂ photocatalyst could achieve 97% within 60 min and 98% within 90 min, respectively.

Keywords:

• Degradation
• doxorubicin
• GO@Fe₃O₄@CeO₂ nano-photocatalyst
• photocatalysis
• tamoxifen

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Hamedan Branch, Islamic Azad University for providing instruments to conduct and complete this study.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

This article does not contain any studies with animals and human subjects. The authors confirm that all the research meets ethical guidelines and adheres to the legal requirements of the study country.

Consent for publication

The authors declare that this manuscript does not contain any individual person’s data and material in any form.

Authors’ contributions

Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Nahid Rashtchi], [Soheil Sobhan Ardakani], [Mehrdad Cheraghi], [Amirreza Goodarzi] and [Bahareh Lorestani]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Nahid Rashtchi] and [Soheil Sobhan Ardakani] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. The corresponding author ensuring that all the listed authors had approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of the authors.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any grant from public, commercial or nonprofit agencies.