ZnO/Co3O4 Nanocomposites: Novel Preparation, Characterization, and Their Performance toward Removal of Antibiotics from Wastewater

Due to the widespread use of antibiotics in geese, water contamination by antibiotics has become a major problem. Photocatalyst semiconductors can play an important role in removing these pollutants from the aquatic environment by using sunlight. In this work, ZnO/Co3O4 nanocomposites as a new magnetic semiconductor is introduced to remove the antibiotics azithromycin and ciprofloxacin. First, the nanocomposite is synthesized by a simple co-precipitation method. Then, the crystalline and morphological properties of the prepared nanocomposite are identified by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) methods. Also, the magnetic properties of the sample are analyzed by vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) technique. Because the photocatalytic properties of semiconductors directly depend on their optical properties and energy gap, the optical properties of the prepared nanocomposite are fully studied by the UV method. Photocatalytic results showed that the prepared nanocomposite could significantly remove antibiotics from the waste water. The prepared nanocomposite was able to degradation 84.5 % and 71.7% of ciprofloxacin and azithromycin in 80 minutes under visible light respectively.