Research Information System
Journal of Molecular Structure, vol.1332, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
Humans and animals are at risk when surface waters and wastewater from various sources contain antibiotics. Nowadays, one efficient and promising technique for treating wastewater polluted with antibiotics is photocatalytic degradation. In this work, an attempt was made for synthesis of ZnO/g-C3N4 nanoparticles as a photocatalyst using musk willow (Salix aegyptiaca) extract and water, which targets the degradation of tetracycline (TC) as a model antibiotic. The green synthesis of ZnO/g-C3N4 NPs using extract not only provides an economical and environmentally friendly way to prepare them, but it also offers a variety of potential uses for ZnO/g-C3N4 NPs in photocatalytic degradation all of which advance energy storage and environmental remediation technologies. The FTIR, XRD, SEM-EDS, and UV-DRS analysis were used for ZnO/g-C3N4 nanocomposite (synthesized by distilled water and extract). The experiment was designed and optimized using the Historical Data Design module of Design Expert v8 software. The photodegradation of TC by ZnO/g-C3N4 was studied under varying conditions: pH (4–10), adsorbent dose (2–8 mg/10 mL), initial TC concentration (10–60 mg L−1), and catalyst type (synthesized by Salix aegyptiaca extract and distilled water). The optimal conditions for removing TC were achieved with a catalyst dosage of 8 g/L, a solution pH of 4.05, a TC concentration of 10 mg/L, and a catalyst synthesized using extract, resulting in 70.21 % TC degradation. Similarly, the best conditions for TC degradation with the catalyst synthesized using distilled water were a dosage of 7.90 mg/10 mL, a solution pH of 4.08, and a TC concentration of 10.78 mg/L, achieving a degradation efficiency of 72.30 %.