Mineralization of organic pollutants of carbamate using synthetic nano photocatalyst of ZnO/α-Fe2O3

Ingredients in agricultural pesticides are a group of chemicals and synthetics that are widely used in the industry. The constant entry of these substances into water resources produces very high levels of pollution, which poses a threat to aquatic environments and their organisms. Among the pesticides used in agriculture are organophosphorus, carbamate and pyrithioide pesticides. Organophosphorus and carbamates have the highest levels of consumption to deal with plant pests. In this study, the photocatalyst was synthesized by ball mills method. In this method, oxide and iron oxide nanoparticles were rotated in half steel compartment (40.5 g of oxide and 80 g of iron oxide) for 12 hours in a high-energy satellite mill at 300 rpm. The weight ratio of the catalyst to 10 mm spheres is 1:20 and for each 15 min rotation, 5 min rest and a total of 16 h cyclical rotation was performed in the device to complete the nanocomposite synthesis process. Heat treatment was carried out for 1 hour by a muffle furnace at 700 ° C. Also, this nanocomposite were characterized with the analysis of XRD, XRF, DRS and FTIR. The XRD analysis showed the hexagonal structure of nanocomposite with using of Debay-Scherer relationship, the crystals size of ZnO/α-Fe2O3 nanocomposite was calculated about 10.66 nm. SEM images showed the Fe2O3 nanoparticle Placement between ZnO nanoparticle. Result of DRS revealed that band gaps of the ZnO and Balmiled iron oxide and heated was 1.878 eV. By FTIR analysis, peaks of Zn-O and Fe-O were observed in the nanocomposite. According to EDX analysis for the weight values of Zn and Fe and O of ZnO/α-Fe2O3 nanocomposite was 5.30% and 55.8%. According to XRF analysis, the weight values of Zn and Fe in ZnO/α-Fe2O3 nanocomposites were 77.33% and 61.13%, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized ZnO/α-Fe2O3 nanocomposite under UV irradiation was analyzed by two 8 watts UVC lamps for mineralization of organic carbamate pollutants from agricultural wastewater. In this design ZnO/α-Fe2O3 nanocomposite concentration, pH and radiation time were considered as effective quantitative variables and the type of catalyst consumed as effective qualitative variables. Reaction rate reached best at 0.0043 min-1 in the best conditions, including modified oxide and catalyst concentration of 1 gr/l and two 8W UV lamps and pH = 8 for 3 hours.