GREEN SYNTHESIS OF SEMICONDUCTOR NANOCOMPOSITE (O-ZnO) USING ONION PEELS EXTRACT FOR DEGRADATION OF ORGANIC MATERIAL

Abstract

    This work presented an economical, environmentally sustainable, and simple method for producing zinc oxide nanocomposite (O-ZnO) using onion peels extract (OPE) and using this nanocomposite material for organic pollutant removal as cefixime (Cfx) from aqueous solution using an advanced oxidation process. The synthesized materials in this study were characterized using analytical techniques, including (The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopes (FESEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The analysis showed that the surface area of onion peels extract (OPE), ZnONPs without OPE, and ZnO with OPE (O-ZnO) were 4.22, 30.1, and 49.3 m2/g, respectively. The findings indicated that the cefixime elimination efficiency of the O-ZnO nanocomposite attained 94%. Under the best operational conditions of pH (4), the dosage of O-ZnO (0.4 mg/L), Cfx concentration was (10 mg/L) with optimum contact time 120min. The kinetic degradation rate of (Cfx) adhered to the pseudo-first-order equation with an R² value of 0.9682, giving a constant degradation rate of 0.03 1/min.