Sunlight-Driven Degradation of Alprazolam and Amitriptyline by Application of Binary Zinc Oxide and Tin Oxide Powders

In recent years, much attention has been paid to pharmaceuticals as potential toxic bioactive substances in the worldwide environment. These compounds are continuously introduced into surroundings small concentrations, which certainly affects quality of water, ecosystem, and general health living organisms. Photocatalysis is a promising technique for treating pharmaceutically active organic pollutants over traditional technologies. This study proposes application photocatalysts composed zinc oxide (ZnO) tin (SnO2), synthesized using solid-state method, photocatalytic degradation two selected psychoactive drugs, amitriptyline (AMI) alprazolam (ALP), under simulated solar UV irradiation an aqueous system. The newly were characterized following techniques: SEM/EDS, XRD, DLS, UV/Vis spectroscopy. obtained data confirmed successful synthesis possible new materials. Concerning evaluation, main results indicate that highest removal efficiency AMI ALP was reached presence ZnO/SnO2 molar ratio 2:1 calcined at 700 °C, 1.0 mg/mL catalyst loading. Based on reutilization findings, it can be concluded mentioned photocatalyst had not lost its after three successive runs photodegradation ALP. Additionally, pure ZnO powders showed activity calcination 500 case both examined pollutants. experiments with tert-butanol, sodium fluoride, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid suggested relative contribution various reactive species changed order: positively charged holes > OHfree• OHads•.