Investigation of Atenolol photo degradation by Synthetic zinc oxide nanoparticles under ultra violet irradiation

The photocatalytic process has been used for many years in industrialized countries as a solution to the world's environmental pollution. During the oxidative photo-catalytic processes, the pollutants are completely degraded by UV irradiation in the presence of semi-conductor catalysts, and are converted to CO2 and H2O. In this work, for the first time, the use of a 9-Watt UVC lamp with synthetic zinc oxide nanoparticles for degradation of atenolol is studied.

The main objective of this work is to investigate the effect of synthetic zinc oxide photo-catalyst on the rate of destruction of atenolol as an organic pollutant in wastewater using low-intensity UV light. The effects of parameters such as concentration of atenolol, amount of photo-catalyst, pH, stirring rate, atmospheric nitrogen, and presence of various ions are studied in the photocatalytic reaction.

An oxidation reaction is performed under the optimal experimental conditions, i.e. 20 mg L-1 of atenolol, 10 mg L-1 of the photo-catalyst, pH 7.0, and a stirring rate of 600 rpm. After 120 minutes of irradiation, atenolol was degraded completely. Kinetic studies under optimized conditions are shown pseudo- first order kinetic.

The results of this study indicate the acceptable performance of the photocatalytic degradation process of synthetic zinc oxide nanoparticles and 9-watt mercury vapor lamp in the decomposition of atenolol.