Synergistic catalytic performance of Co3O4/ZnO-based MOFs functionalized with CeO2 and ZrO2 substituents

Abstract

The detrimental effects of pollution on the land, air, and water harm all of humanity. Water contamination is one of the severe negative impacts of pollution, threatening the lives of humankind and all organisms on the planet. The production of highly effective, inexpensive, and recyclable substances has become vital in order to defend our environment against pollution and conserve watersheds for upcoming generations. In this study, impressive MOF-based nanocomposites have been produced using a co-precipitation approach to photo catalytically degrade the hazardous dye rhodamine-B (RhB) and antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) from wastewater. The prepared nanocomposites were characterized by employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to investigate their morphology, elemental content or compositional attributes and crystallite size. UV-visible spectrophotometry was employed to validate the absorbance spectrum. The application of degrading rhodamine-B (RhB) dye and ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic was administered by the as-prepared nanocomposites Co₃O₄/ZnO/CeO₂-MOF and Co₃O₄/ZnO/ZrO₂-MOF. The better efficiency was observed in the case of Co₃O₄/ZnO/CeO₂-MOF, which showed 94.5% degradation of rhodamine-B (RhB) and 92.5% (in the presence of H₂O₂) removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP) successfully. This work establishes a path for the synthesis of MOF-based nanocomposites, which may be produced with affordable metals. In the coming years, this strategy will be vital to clean up the environment from various contaminants.