Issue 9, 2024

Nano-TiO2 immobilized polyvinylidene fluoride based spongy-spheres for ciprofloxacin photocatalytic degradation: antibacterial activity removal, mechanisms, UVA LED irradiation and easy recovery

Abstract

TiO2 is promising for the photocatalytic treatment of water contaminated with organic micropollutants. However, it is hard to recover TiO2 slurry from water. Energy-intensive separation methods are required to recover TiO2, which is a setback in the effective use of TiO2 in water treatment. Herein, we present nano-TiO2 immobilized with polyvinylidene fluoride spongy beads (TP) via simple phase inversion of the mixture of TiO2 (1%), PVDF (13%) and PVP (0.7%) for the degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP), a micropollutant in water, under UVA LED irradiation with easy TP recovery. The stable immobilization of TiO2 with PVDF beads is attributed to interactions between Ti and F atoms. The pseudo first-order rate constant value (kobs = 0.0761 min−1) was determined for the degradation of CIP by TP. Radical scavenging, chronoamperometry, and ESR analysis revealed the presence of O2˙, h+, HO˙ and 1O2 reactive species. LC-HRMS analysis detected ten degradation byproducts with possible degradation pathways. Importantly, the antibacterial activity of CIP against Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli was totally removed after 60 min treatment. TP beads were easily recovered using a simple strainer. TP was recovered and reused 30 times, and the absence of significant TiO2 leaching into water demonstrated its stable immobilization. TP photocatalysis under UVA LED irradiation proves an energy-efficient treatment method with an electrical energy per order of 24.20 kW h m−3. Overall, the study highlights a concrete way to effectively use the TiO2 photocatalyst for water treatment via immobilization using a simple phase inversion method.

Graphical abstract: Nano-TiO2 immobilized polyvinylidene fluoride based spongy-spheres for ciprofloxacin photocatalytic degradation: antibacterial activity removal, mechanisms, UVA LED irradiation and easy recovery

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Apr 2024
Accepted
25 Jun 2024
First published
25 Jun 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2024,11, 3729-3743

Nano-TiO2 immobilized polyvinylidene fluoride based spongy-spheres for ciprofloxacin photocatalytic degradation: antibacterial activity removal, mechanisms, UVA LED irradiation and easy recovery

L. G. Raikar, A. Patel, J. Gandhi, K. V. K. Gupta and H. Prakash, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2024, 11, 3729 DOI: 10.1039/D4EN00302K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements