Nanostructured Conducting Polymers Metal Metal Oxide as an Efficient Photocatalyst for the Treatment of Organic Pollutants in Wastewater

Abstract

The current research focused on synthesizing conducting polymers (CPs) such as Polypyrrole (PPy), Polyaniline (PANI), Polythiophene (PTh), and their nanocomposites with metal-metal oxide via the in situ polymerization method.In this research work, two metal-metal oxide nanoparticles were synthesized, particularly 4 wt% Cu-doped ZnO (CZ) and CZ nanoparticles doped with 2, 3, 4 and8 wt% Fe (FCZ), using the co-precipitation method. Thestructure, morphology and optical properties of synthesized CPs/CZ, FCZ and CPs/4FCZnanocomposites were characterized by powder-X-ray diffraction (PXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Attenuated total reflection (ATR)-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, Mott Schottky (M-S) analysis, Photoluminescence (PL) and Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET). The prepared samples were assessed for photocatalytic dye degradation of various dyes and binary mixtures under natural sunlight in an open atmosphere and using an artificial photoreactor. The investigation aimed to evaluate the impact of integrating conducting polymers (CPs) like PPy, PANI, and PTh with metal-metal oxides in photocatalytic dye degradation. Methylene Blue (MB), Rhodamine B (RhB), Rose Bengal (RB), Brilliant Yellow (BY), and Acid Red (AR) dyes were chosen as target pollutants. The study examined the influence of initial dye concentration, catalyst load, pH, scavenger, kinetics, and catalyst reusability on the degradation process. The efficacy of dye breakdown was confirmed through COD measurement, and dye degradation by-products were analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). This approach is expected to reduce the cost of organic dye removal from wastewater and enhance the efficiency of large-scale processes.