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Photocatalytic Removal of Antibiotics from Wastewater Using the CeO2/ZnO Heterojunction

Materials 2023 21 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 45 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Nicolae Apostolescu, Ramona-Elena Tataru-Fărmuş, María Harja, Mihaela Aurelia Vizitiu, Corina Cernătescu, Claudia Cobzaru, Gabriela Apostolescu

Summary

Researchers synthesized CeO2/ZnO heterostructure photocatalysts using sol-gel methods and demonstrated high efficiency for degrading antibiotic compounds in water under light irradiation, with the heterojunction preventing electron-hole recombination and enhancing photocatalytic performance.

Study Type Environmental

CeO2/ZnO-based photocatalytic materials were synthesized by the sol-gel method in order to establish heterojunctions that increase the degradation efficiency of some types of antibiotics by preventing the recombination of electron-hole pairs. The synthesized materials were analysed by XRD, SEM, EDAX, FTIR, and UV-Vis. After several tests, the optimal concentration of the catalyst was determined to be 0.05 g‧L-1 and 0.025 g‧L-1 for chlortetracycline and 0.05 g‧L-1 for ceftriaxone. CeO2/ZnO assemblies showed much better degradation efficiency compared to ZnO or CeO2 tested individually. Sample S3 shows good photocatalytic properties for the elimination of ceftriaxone and tetracycline both from single solutions and from the binary solution. This work provides a different perspective to identify other powerful and inexpensive photocatalysts for wastewater treatment.

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