Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences - Department of Laser Applications in Environmental Metrology, photochemistry and photobiology

Pharmaceuticals are a part of water organic contaminants. Antibiotics are dangerous pollutants in the marine environment because of their negative effects on marine life and people. Therefore, it is very important to improve the efficiency of water detoxification techniques. In this study, TiO₂, ZnO nanoparticles and their Nano-composite (ZnO/TiO₂) prepared by a sol{u2013}gel method and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The effects of various operating parameters such as photo-catalyst concentration, pH and airflow and irradiation time on the photo-catalytic degradation of the antibiotic Amoxicillin (Amox) will present. All the prepared photo-catalysts suspension achieved high photo-degradation efficiency under air pumping. The results revealed that the synthesized ZnO/TiO₂ Nano-composite have the capability to completely remove Amox from the aqueous sample (0.589 x 10⁻³ M/L) under neutral pH condition and illumination for 6h under sunlight. TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles also removed 98% and 96% of Amox respectively under the same experimental conditions but at alkaline pH 11. Statistical analysis of the results confirmed that the Amox degradation had significantly affected by all photo-catalysts concentrations

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