Innovative photocatalytic reactor for the degradation of chlorpyrifos using a coated composite of ZrV2O7 and graphene nano-platelets

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2020-09, Vol.395, p.124974, Article 124974
• Main Authors: Samy, Mahmoud, Ibrahim, Mona G., Gar Alalm, Mohamed, Fujii, Manabu, Diab, Kamal E., ElKady, Marwa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Graphene; Pesticides; Photocatalysis; Response surface; Zirconium vanadate
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2020.124974

[Display omitted] •An innovative photocatalytic reactor was designed.•GNPs/ZrV2O7 nanoparticles were coated on glass plates.•Successful degradation of chlorpyrifos was attained by the designed set-up.•Detailed oxidation mechanism and pathway were investigated. An innovative photocatalytic reactor was employed to assess the performance of a low band-gap synthesized composite of graphene nano-platelets (GNPs) and zirconium vanadate (ZrV2O7). The composite was coated on illuminated plates inside the reactor to evaluate its photocatalytic activity and stability. Various analyses such as TEM, EDX, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, TGA, PL, and XPS were employed to study the morphology and structure of the composite. Chlorpyrifos was used as a model pollutant to examine the performance of the experimental set-up. A central composite design (CCD) was used for the optimization of the operating parameters through the response surface methodology (RSM). The degradation efficiencies using GNPs/ZrV2O7 were 96.8%, 95.2%, 93.8%, 92.8% and 91.0%, compared to 85.4%, 84.6%, 83.8%, 82.6% and 81.8% in the case of bare ZrV2O7 in five consecutive runs. The mechanism and pathway of chlorpyrifos degradation were investigated based on mass spectrometry and the scavenging assay of oxidant species.