Photochemical Degradation of Fluocinolone Acetonidin Drug in Aqueous Solutions Using Nanophotocatalyst ZnO Doped by C, N, and S

Abstract

<em>It has been shown that the photocatalytic activity of doped semiconductor with some nonmetals is higher than a pure semiconductor. Hence, with an attempt to achieve higher photocatalytic activity, doped ZnO with C, N, and S was prepared by a sedimentary process and used for the photocatalytic degradation of </em><em>Fluocinolone Acetonidin as a drug in aqueous solutions.</em><em> </em><em>X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersion X-ray (EDX), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)</em><em> and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the microstructure and morphology of the precursor and the products. </em><em>The photocatalytic degradation of the drug was investigated using supported ZnO/C, N, and S photocatalyst under UV light irradiation. We also studied the influence of the basic photocatalytic parameters as well as irradiation time,</em><em> the initial concentration of the drug,</em><em> pH of the solution, amount of nanoparticles</em><em> and addition of oxidant on the reaction. The optimum conditions of degradation were obtained accordingly:</em><em> concentration of Fluocinolone Acetonidin, 20 ppm; the amount of photocatalyst, 7 mg; oxidant (K₂S₂O₈), 5 mM;</em><em> irradiation </em><em>time, 6 h in pH=9. Kinetic </em><em>analysis demonstrated that the amount of </em><em>Fluocinolone Acetonidin </em><em>photocatalytic degradation can be fitted by a pseudo-first-order model.</em>