Novel organic assisted Ag-ZnO photocatalyst for atenolol and acetaminophen photocatalytic degradation under visible radiation: performance and reaction mechanism

This study is on photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical residues of atenolol (ATL) and acetaminophen (ACT) present in secondary effluent under visible light irradiation stimulated by Ag doped ZnO (Ag-ZnO) photocatalyst. Lawsonia inermis leaf extract was used for reduction of Zinc sulphate to ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). Further, ZnO NPs were doped with Ag and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, surface area analyzer, UV-Vis, and photoluminescence spectrometry to analyze the structure, morphology, chemical composition, and optical property. FT-IR analysis revealed major functional groups such as OH, C=O, and SEM analysis depicted the polyhedron shape of the NPs with size range of 100 nm. Ag-ZnO NPs were used in the photocatalytic degradation of ATL and ACT, and its removal was evaluated by varying initial contaminant concentration, catalyst dosage, and initial pH. Findings indicate that Ag-ZnO NPs demonstrated relative narrow bandgap and efficient charge separation that resulted in enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light illumination. The photocatalytic degradation of ATL and ACT fitted well with pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Further, it was found that under optimal conditions of 5 mg/L of contaminants, pH of 8.5, and catalyst dose of 1 g/L, degradation efficiency of 70.2% (ATL) and 90.8% (ACT) was achieved for a reaction time of 120 min. More than 60% reduction in TOC was observed for both contaminants and OH• pathway was found to be the major removal process. Ag-ZnO photocatalyst showed good recycling performance, and these findings indicate that it could be cost effectively employed for removing emerging contaminants under visible light radiation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-13532-2.