A benevolent direction to environmental suitability: ionic liquid immobilized MoO3 nanoparticles used in the efficient visible light-driven photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics

Abstract

In this study, we report the synthesis of a novel MoO₃-bonded imidazolium sulfonic acid chloride (MoO₃-IL) and its application in the photocatalytic degradation of two very highly polluting antibiotics, viz. ciprofloxacin and metronidazole. The photocatalyst has been prepared via a facile precipitation technique and the morphological, structural, and photocatalytic properties were analyzed by FT-IR, powder XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, XPS, UV-DRS, and PL studies. Under visible light irradiation, the immobilized functionalized ionic liquid material displayed considerably enriched photocatalytic activity for the degradation of ciprofloxacin and metronidazole. It exhibited a degradation efficiency of 92.07% for ciprofloxacin, while it recorded the complete degradation of metronidazole in 60 minutes with a rate constant of 0.0391 min⁻¹. The synergism of the nano MoO₃ and ionic liquid, lower band gap, and late recombination of the photoinduced charge carriers are the major factors in its high photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, trapping experiments were conducted to confirm the photoactive radicals involved in the degradation process.