Green synthesis of zero iron nanoparticles and its application in the degradation of Sulphacetamide by using of PS/nZVI process

ABSTRACT

In this study, oak leaf extract was used as a reducing agent in the green synthesis of zero iron nanoparticles (nZVI). The morphology characteristic of the nZVI was determined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to crystalline structure and functional group analysis. After that, degradation of the sulphacetamide (STM) was investigated by using the persulphate (PS)/nZVI process. The results showed that the PS/nZVI process effectively degraded STM (98.5%) at pH: 3, PS: 1.5 mM, nZVI: 2 g/L, and STM: 25 mg/L in a contact time of 90 min. The kinetic study also showed that the degradation process followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Therefore, it can be concluded that the PS/nZVI process can be used to remove drug contaminants from aquatic environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Green synthesis
• sulphacetamide
• nZVI
• persulphate
• oak extract

Acknowledgments

This study is part of the doctoral dissertation of the first author, which was conducted in the Department of Environmental Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch. The authors thank all those who contributed to this study.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).