Green Synthesis of MnFe2O4 Magnetic Nanoparticle and its Application in Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Antibiotic: An Effective Model for Wastewater Treatment of Military Pharmaceutical Industries

Supplying safe water and treating emerging pollutants such as antibiotics is an important part of the broad issue of military hydrology. Today, photocatalytic processes work very well to remove these factors and can be effective most of the time without producing side products.

The aim of this study is to synthesize MnFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles and determine their efficiency in the photocatalytic removal of tetracycline from aqueous solutions, as an effective model for the treatment of military pharmaceutical wastewater.

This research is a laboratory study that was conducted in a batch reactor at room temperature on synthetic samples. First, the magnetic nanoparticle MnFe2O4 was synthesized using the extract of Dracocephalum plant and characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM, FTIR, VSM analyses and its effectiveness in the process of photocatalytic removal of tetracycline in the presence of UV light was evaluated by examining various parameters such as pH (3-9), catalyst dose (0.025-1g/L), tetracycline concentration (5-100mg/L), contact time (5-20 min).

The spherical shape and the uniform surface of the synthesized nanoparticle with the size of 40-50 nm and in addition, the superparamagnetic properties of the synthesized nanoparticle were confirmed. Also, the photocatalytic experiments showed that the maximum efficiency of tetracycline degradation in optimal conditions was %68.71, which showed an increase in efficiency of %33.66 in similar conditions compared to the results of photolysis experiments. After six cycles, the efficiency of tetracycline removal decreased by %4 in the stability results of this nanoparticle.  It should be noted that the reaction rate kinetics in this study followed the pseudo-first-order model.

Based on the favorable results obtained in this study, this process is suggested for the removal of pharmaceutical pollutants and wastewater treatment in military pharmaceutical industries and military hospitals.