Highly Efficient Solar-Light-Driven Photodegradation of Metronidazole by Nickel Hexacyanoferrate Nanocubes Showing Enhanced Catalytic PerformancesShow others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Small Methods, E-ISSN 2366-9608, Vol. 9, no 2, article id 2301541Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Environmental pollution is a complex problem that threatens the health and life of animal and plant ecosystems on the planet. In this respect, the scientific community faces increasingly challenging tasks in designing novel materials with beneficial properties to address this issue. This study describes a simple yet effective synthetic protocol to obtain nickel hexacyanoferrate (Ni-HCF) nanocubes as a suitable photocatalyst, which can enable an efficient photodegradation of hazardous anthropogenic organic contaminants in water, such as antibiotics. Ni-HCF nanocubes are fully characterized and their optical and electrochemical properties are investigated. Preliminary tests are also carried out to photocatalytically remove metronidazole (MDZ), an antibiotic that is difficult to degrade and has become a common contaminant as it is widely used to treat infections caused by anaerobic microorganisms. Under simulated solar light, Ni-HCF displays substantial photocatalytic activity, degrading 94.3% of MDZ in 6 h. The remarkable performance of Ni-HCF nanocubes is attributeto a higher ability to separate charge carriers and to a lower resistance toward charge transfer, as confirmed by the electrochemical characterization. These achievements highlight the possibility of combining the performance of earth-abundant catalysts with a renewable energy source for environmental remediation, thus meeting the requirements for sustainable development.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2025. Vol. 9, no 2, article id 2301541
Keywords [en]
metronidazole, nanocubes, photocatalysis, Prussian blue analogues, wastewater treatment
National Category
Materials Chemistry
Research subject
Experimental Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-104514DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202301541ISI: 001163756800001PubMedID: 38368269Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85185142722OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-104514DiVA, id: diva2:1843082
Funder
The Kempe FoundationsKnut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, KAW 2016.346ÅForsk (Ångpanneföreningen's Foundation for Research and Development)
Note
Validerad;2025;Nivå 2;2025-03-21 (u4);
Funder: Italian Ministry of University and Research (PE0000021); Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (SPIN2019, SPIN2021); European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR (TED2021-130756B-C31 MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033);
Full text license: CC BY;
Special Issue: Solid State Chemistry and Inorganic Synthetic Chemistry ‐ Novel Structures and Accurate Syntheses of Inorganic Materials
2024-03-072024-03-072025-03-21Bibliographically approved