Tetracycline Wastewater Degradation by Brass Foil Doped with Nickel Oxide

Pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics are not removed from wastewater by conventional biological methods due to their antibacterial property. Hence, they enter environment and cause to increase the growth of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and also toxic effects on ecosystem. One of the most effective methods for removal of antibiotics is photocatalysis. In this work, a new photocatalyst, brass doped with nickel oxide was used to degrade tetracycline antibiotic wastewater. This photocatalyst was prepared by the calcination of the brass foil to grow the nanowires; and then doped with NiO. In comparison with the powder photocatalyst, foil has the advantage of easy separation from water. The synthesized NiO/Brass foil photocatalyst was characterized by ICP, EDAX and SEM. The results of EDAX confirmed the existence of nickel on the surface of the photocatalyst. By SEM, the hexagonal structure of the nanowire was observable. The kinetics of the tetracycline photodegradation was studied; and the results showed that the second order kinetics was best fitted to the experimental data. The kinetic constants were 0.0265 min-1 and 0.0204 min-1 for NiO/Brass and for calcinated brass; respectively. The larger reaction kinetic constant of NiO/brass showed that it is more efficient for tetracycline photodegradation under UV irradiation.

کلیدواژه ها:

Brass Foil ، Nickel Oxide ، Photocatalyst ، Tetracycline Wastewater.