Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Power Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Serdang, Malaysia. mahmadipour@uniten.edu.my
  • 2 School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
  • 3 Biomedical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
  • 4 Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Interfaces (LIMA), Faculty of Science of Monastir, University of Monastir, Avenue of Environment, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia
  • 5 Institute of Power Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Serdang, Malaysia
  • 6 Center of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Processing (AMMP), Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 7 Department of Energy & Environmental Engineering, CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Tarnaka, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500007, India
  • 8 Department of Chemical Science, Faculty of Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
  • 9 Department of Chemistry, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore campus, 54000, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 10 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
  • 11 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
PMID: 38514592 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-32977-9

Abstract

The objective of this research is to create a highly effective approach for eliminating pollutants from the environment through the process of photocatalytic degradation. The study centers around the production of composites consisting of CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) using an ultrasonic-assisted method, with a focus on their capacity to degrade ibuprofen (IBF) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) via photodegradation. The impact of rGO on the structure, morphology, and optical properties of CCTO was inspected using XRD, FTIR, Raman, FESEM, XPS, BET, and UV-Vis. Morphology characterization showed that rGO particles were dispersed within the CCTO matrix without any specific chemical interaction between CCTO and C in the rGO. The BET analysis revealed that with increasing the amount of rGO in the composite, the specific surface area significantly increased compared to the CCTO standalone. Besides, increasing rGO resulted in a reduction in the optical bandgap energy to around 2.09 eV, makes it highly promising photocatalyst for environmental applications. The photodegradation of IBF and CIP was monitored using visible light irradiation. The results revealed that both components were degraded above 97% after 60 min. The photocatalyst showed an excellent reusability performance with a slight decrease after five runs to 93% photodegradation efficiency.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.