Photocatalytic degradation of anti-inflammatory drug using POPD/Sb2O3 organic-inorganic nanohybrid under solar light

The present manuscript reports the degradation of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) Ibuprofen (IB) in aqueous solution using Sb2O3 and POPD/Sb2O3nanohybrids using solar light radiation. The prepared POPD/Sb2O3 nanohybrids were characterized by TGA, FE-SEM-EDX, FT-IR, XRD, TEM, and UV–Vis studies. The thermal stability was found to follow the order: 24%-POPD/ Sb2O3 > 18%-POPD/Sb2O3 > 12%-POPD/Sb2O3 > 6%-POPD/Sb2O3 > Sb2O3. Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) studies confirmed synergistic interaction between POPD and Sb2O3. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) studies revealed the formation of nano cubes of Sb2O3 with particles size ranging between 6 nm–50 nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed crystalline morphology. UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) studies showed that the band gap of Sb2O3, POPD, and POPD/Sb2O3 nanohybrids were found to be 3.35 eV, 1.57 eV and 1.67 to 1.35 eV respectively. Ibuprofen drug was chosen as a model reaction to evaluate the photocatalytic activities of Sb2O3, POPD and POPD/Sb2O3 using solar light radiation. The catalytic activities of pure Sb2O3 and nanohybrids were in the order of 24%-POPD/Sb2O3 > 18%-POPD/Sb2O3 > 12%-POPD/Sb2O3 > 6%- POPD/Sb2O3 > Sb2O3.The nanohybrids were observed to degrade the drug pollutant by 91% within a short span of 60 min. The degradation kinetics fitted the second order model. Radical scavenging experiments validated that the photo-generated ●OH and ●O2– radicals were the two main photoactive species which were responsible for photocatalytic degradation. The degraded drug fragments were identified using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS). The possible photocatalytic mechanism has been proposed, taking into account the synergetic effect between Sb2O3 with POPD.