Organic contaminants: photocatalytic degradation using HHP/CuONPs (2D/3D) composite as a heterogeneous catalyst

ABSTRACT

Human hair is a filament rich in protein that grows from the follicles present in the scalp. It is considered to be a notable biomaterial consisting of β-keratin, which shows excellent catalytic activity in organic transformation. Keratin is a family of structural fibrous proteins rich in cysteine, which are abundantly present in human hair. Based on the template synthesis strategy, human-hair Keratin was used as a platform template to synthesise metal oxide nanoparticles. Here the aim was to synthesis hair protein supported CuO nanoparticles (HHP/CuONPs) and study their catalytic applications. Protein is extracted from the hair sample using the Shindai method. The HHP/CuONPs sample has been scrutinised using various characterisation techniques such as UV, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, EDX, Raman, XPS, and zeta potential. The synthesised HHP/CuONPs show photo-catalytic efficiency against coloured organic pollutants, 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP), and amaranth dye. The degradation level has been found to be 96% in DNP and 94% in amaranth dye. Optimisation and reusability of hair protein-mediated copper oxide have been tested under various conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Human hair
• metal nanoparticles
• catalytic activity
• Shindai method
• 2,4-Dinitrophenol
• degradation level

Acknowledgments

We thank Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT Vellore) for giving us all the amenities to succeed in this work. Priya is grateful for the CSIR-SRF grant 09/844(0052)/2018-EMR-I. We also want to thank Prof. G. Madhumitha for his help with the reaction in the microwave oven.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

All data analysed during this study are included in this published article https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2022.2060087

Supplementary material

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