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A study published in the Journal of Chemical Engineering describes a strategy to produce a zinc oxide (ZnO) material capable of degrading sertraline, an antidepressant detected, like other drugs, in groundwater around the world and considered an emerging pollutant. This type of substance has certain physicochemical properties that prevent its elimination by conventional wastewater treatment methods.
The research was carried out in Brazil by scientists from the Center for the Development of Functional Materials (CDMF), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the Federal University of Alfenas (FINUL) and the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB).
The strategy described in the paper involved experimental design and microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis (MASS) to produce hierarchical 3D ZnO photocatalysts capable of degrading sertraline with a high level of efficiency in just ten minutes.
The researchers deployed principal component analysis (PCA), until now little used in materials synthesis, to correlate the physicochemical and photocatalytic properties of materials with the synthesis conditions studied. The results showed that chemometric tools provide excellent results in the study of synthetic systems generating large amounts of experimental data.
The samples with the greatest potential for environmental rehabilitation were identified. The photocatalytic activity of 3D ZnO effectively degraded an organic dye and the emerging pollutant sertraline in natural water. The results confirmed that 3D ZnO absorbed light energy (ultraviolet A and C) to promote efficient photo-oxidation of water, producing oxidative species that degrade organic contaminants.
Degradation performance remained high for up to five application cycles, retaining crystal structure, morphology and other properties, while phytotoxicity testing showed that byproducts formed during the degradation process of the sertraline were not toxic to the tested organisms, confirming the safety of the photocatalyst for wastewater. treatment.
The results of the study were competitive with other materials reported in the literature, showing that materials obtained under advantageous synthesis conditions offer a real path towards the development of new technologies for the environmental remediation of emerging pollutants in natural water.
Improper disposal of pharmaceuticals causes widespread contamination, according to Ailton Moreira, a researcher at CDMF and corresponding author of the article, he added, highlighting the timeliness of the topic in light of the risks to human health and the environment.
The choice of sertraline was important, he explained, because the number of studies involving the application of heterogeneous photocatalysis for the degradation of sertraline is very limited, and the researchers’ review of the literature does not found none on the use of ZnO for this purpose.
The next steps are to analyze the performance of the photocatalyst in real wastewater treatment systems to see if it breaks down sertraline and other emerging pollutants individually or in more complex mixtures such as hospital or household wastewater treated by sewage treatment plants. These researchers and others plan to focus on a wastewater treatment plant in Gavião Peixoto state, São Paulo.
More information:
Thalles EM Silva et al, Hierarchical structure of 3D ZnO experimentally designed to achieve high performance in sertraline photocatalysis in natural waters, Journal of Chemical Engineering (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.146235
Quote: 3D material found to break down antidepressant that contaminates bodies of water around the world (December 19, 2023) retrieved December 20, 2023 from
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