Utilization of activated carbon for maximizing the efficiency of zirconium oxide for photodegradation of 4-octylphenol

Abstract

Utilization of AC/zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) for the removal of 4-octylphenol (4-OP) from aqueous solution has been studied under simulated visible-light as a cost effective technique. To draw complete images for the prepared materials, a series of characterization methods was performed. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) data has proved that AC has high surface area and total pore volumes that are decreased after incorporation of ZrO₂. Morphologically, TEM showed massive quantity of ZrO₂ spherical shape nanoparticles loaded with carbon and EDX showed the uniform distribution of all the prepared materials. The photocatalytic performance has been traced via adopting a matrix effect analysis to correlate the photodegradation of 4-OP in the presence of visible light as a time function, pH, photocatalyst dose and initial concentration of 4-OP. The positive impact of AC content in AC/ZrO₂ composite on the adsorption of 4-OP was strikingly observed with expanding the AC content in AC/ZrO₂ composite up to 33% (wt/wt). Almost 97% of the 4-OP was removed within 180 min under simulated visible light. The optimum reaction conditions for 95% removal of 4-OP were 120 min, 1 g L⁻¹ catalyst dose at pH 8. The photocatalytic degradation of the 4-OP was well fitted with pseudo first-order L-H kinetic model.

Keywords:

• Endocrine disrupting hormones
• 4-octylphenol
• activated carbon
• zirconium oxide
• photodegradation

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out at National Research center, Food Toxicology and Contaminants Department in cooperation with Water Pollution department through Grantee W/4679-2 provided by International Foundation for Science (IFS), Sweden and co-financed by the Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH).