Introduction
Industrial development has grown significantly in recent years, leading to a substantial increase in industrial waste discharge into receiving bodies of water. This has resulted in the release of various pollutants into water bodies. Numerous persistent organic compounds have been identified, including phenols, chlorophenols, and pyridine, which are compounds commonly associated with industrial activities (Koe et al., 2020).
Pyridine is widely used in the synthesis of various compounds, including fertilizers, paints, and pesticides. Advanced oxidation processes are an effective alternative for degrading persistent organic compounds. These processes include non-photocatalytic methods such as ultrasound as well as photocatalytic methods such as heterogeneous photocatalysis.
The increasingly acceptable use of chemical products in industries and homes has led to an increase in organic pollutants in effluents (Careghini et al., 2015).
Various industries release a significant number of aromatic compounds into the environment due to their widespread use in many industries. Among these, heterocyclic aromatic compounds such as pyridine and its derivatives are of particular concern as environmental pollutants due to their recalcitrant, toxic, and teratogenic nature (Santhi et al., 2015; Bello and Raman, 2018).
Pyridine and substituted pyridines are important intermediates for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, metal corrosion inhibitors, rubber vulcanization accelerators, etc. (Grigor’eva et al., 2015., Ashok et al., 2022., Frolov and Vereshchagin, 2023., Marinescu and Popa C. (2022). Moctezuma, López, and Zermeño 2016)
Pyridine is produced from coal tar and as a by-product of coal gasification. However, the increased demand for pyridine resulted in the development of cheaper synthesis methods from acetaldehyde and ammonia, and more than 20,000 tons are manufactured per year worldwide. Therefore, researchers have long sought to develop effective and economically viable techniques to clean the atmosphere of wastes such as pyridine (Elsayed, 2013).
Pyridine, whose chemical formula is C3H5N, has become a severe pollution problem due to its extensive use in different branches of industry. Its presence in wastewater is evidenced by an unpleasant odor, which is perceptible at very low concentrations (0.3 μg/L). It also gives water an unpleasant taste, starting at concentrations of 0.82 mg/L. (Aguilar et al., 2012., Song, Chen and Song, 2021, Moctezuma, López and Zermeño 2016; Swarnakar et al. 2013).
ZnO is an important semiconductor material which has a wide range of applications, including transparent conducting oxides, UV light absorbers, and photocatalysis.
Since the band gap energy of ZnO crystals is about 3.3 eV, ZnO can absorb UV rays with wavelengths under 375 nm. Therefore, ZnO has been regarded as an excellent UV shielding material, with broad UV absorption characteristics and photofastness compared with other organic and inorganic UV shielding materials.
The absorbed UV rays excite the valence electrons to the conduction band. When these photo-excited electrons and holes move to the particle surfaces where water and oxygen molecules reside, highly active free radicals such as superoxide anion (•O2) and •OH radical are generated and undergo secondary reactions such as the decomposition of organic compounds.
Transition metal doping and mixed oxide formation are two widely studied mechanisms to improve the intrinsic properties of binary oxides. Both procedures have been instrumental in the spectacular increase in applications based on zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium oxide (TiO2) thin films (Bozena and Rubinowska, 2013).
Applications derived from metal-doped ZnO in optoelectronic devices include photovoltaic solar cells, flat panel displays, photodetectors, gas sensors, and light-emitting diodes. Most previous works on doped ZnO films focus on doping with group III elements, and in particular, trivalent cations of the elements Al, Ga, and I have been frequently used to enhance the n-type conductivity of ZnO films (Kumar et al. 2017; El Nemr et al., 2019).
Preparing doped material is also a competent method for regulating the surface states of ZnO energy levels, which can be further advanced by changing the doping concentration of semiconductor materials.
As one of the most interesting p-type magnetic doping materials, cobalt-oxide nanostructures are also recognized as attractive materials with broad applications in various fields, such as doping, catalysts, solid-state sensors, and electrochemical devices (Mohammed et al., 2013).
Doping of impurities to create chemical and, in some cases, physical defects in the crystal lattice that would act as the capture and recombination sites of excitons, transition metal (M) atoms are introduced as impurities in ZnO crystallites to tailor the photocatalytic property (Islam et al., 2018).
Results
Figure 2 shows the characterization of the catalysts synthesized by the SEM technique. In
Figure 2 (A), a characteristic shape of undoped ZnO is observed with a crystal shape with an average size of 100 to 50 μm; a clean surface is observed. In
Figure 2 (B), accumulations of small particles are observed on the surface of the ZnO, which are attributed to the deposited aluminum particles.
The results of the SEM characterization and EDS analysis (
Figure 2 (D)) show that Al
+3 nanoparticles were indeed deposited on the surface of the zinc oxide. Although this is not a quantitative test but rather a qualitative one, the EDS result gives a percentage of 11% by weight of the doped material, and plasmons of this are shown in the microfilms presented (
Figure 1 C).
X-Rays
An X-ray analysis of elemental compounds was carried out to verify that the aluminum was impregnated in the zinc oxide matrix.
Figure 3.
Elemental compound X-ray analysis of the ZnO-Al+3 catalyst.
Figure 3.
Elemental compound X-ray analysis of the ZnO-Al+3 catalyst.
Aluminum is present at 4.1%, consistent with the mass concentration used in doping. This study confirms the presence of aluminum.
Diffuse Reflectance
The optical band gap can be estimated using the following Tauc relationship (Montalvo et al., 2018):
Where B is a constant and, Eg is the forbidden or optical bandwidth of the material, n is a number characterizing the nature of the electronic transition between the valence band and conduction band, which can have values 1/2, 2, 3/2, and 3 corresponding to the direct allowed, indirect allowed, direct forbidden, and indirect forbidden transitions, respectively.
It is well known that the direct transition through the forbidden band is feasible between the valence band and the conduction band bordering the “k-space.” In the transition process, the total energy and momentum of the electron-photon system must be conserved.
It is known that ZnO is a direct band gap semiconductor, so from the above equation, it is clear that the graph of (αhν)1/2 vs. hν will indicate a divergence at an energy value, for example, where the transition occurs. The value of the forbidden band depends on the nature of the transition (i.e., the n value) given.
The estimated band gap from the plot of (αhν)
1/2 versus hν for Al
+3 doped ZnO particles can be seen in
Figure 4. The band gap (“Eg”) is determined by extrapolating the straight portion to the energy axis at α = 0. The linear part shows that the transition mode in these particles is direct. The estimated band gap value of Al
+3 doped ZnO was 3.08 eV. The band gap value is smaller than that of undoped ZnO of 3.37 eV; this might be due to the strain arising from the chemical synthesis of Al
+3 doped ZnO. These microstrains greatly influence the optical band gap of the material (Raliya et al., 2017).
The transition mode in these ZnO nanoparticles was confirmed to be direct. The absorption coefficient near the band edge is also assumed to show an exponential dependence on photon energy, and this dependence is given as follows: (Salah et al., 2016, Wang et al., 2016).
where α
0 is a constant, and E
u is the Urbach energy interpreted as the width of the tails of the localized states associated with the amorphous state in the forbidden gap.
Raman Spectroscopy
Figure 5 shows the Raman spectrum of undoped (red) and doped (blue line) ZnO. The first shows the characteristic peaks of zinc oxide. In this case, zinc oxide was obtained from its hexagonal phase (wursite), and its structure belongs to the C3v symmetry group in which the following vibration modes exist, determined by group theory, which is: Γ = A
1 + 2B
1 + E
1 + 2E
2.
The modes A1, E1, and E2, E2(low), E2 (high)) are Raman active modes. The symmetrical modes A1 and E1 are Raman and Infrared active modes, E2 is only Raman active and B1 is a forbidden mode for both Raman and Infrared. The polar characteristics of the A1 and E1 vibration modes lead to longitudinal and transverse components designated as A1(TO), A1(LO), E1(TO), and E1(LO).
Zinc oxide has a particular peak at 446 cm-1 that, when doped with Al+3 this peak is not observed and similar to the Raman spectrum of ZnOAl+3 (doped), an increase in the intensity of the characteristic peaks 580 cm-1 A(Lo), 986 cm-1 E1 and E2, 1102 cm-1. E1 and E2 and 1153 cm-1 E1 (2Lo) is seen; that is, there is an increase of 6 units of intensity on average in these peaks in the doped zinc oxide lines, which may be logical since the aluminum is on the surface of the zinc oxide and may be causing this.
Uv-Vis and HPLC Results
The UV-vis results are shown in
Figure 6, which shows the characteristic peaks of pyridine at an initial time, peaks at 256 and 250 nm. Pyridine is a heterocyclic compound that presents several electronic transitions, which are combinations of the π-π
* y η-Π
* transitions, to which these characteristic peaks are attributed (Aguilar 2011, Medellín et al. 2013). The maximum peak decreases as the degradation time passes; in this case, the total exposure time was 72 h.
During the first hours, the percentage of degradation between each 6 hours is approximately 39%. At the final times (48 to 72 h), this percentage is drastically reduced to 20%, with a photodegradation percentage of 62% after 72 h.
Figure 7 shows how the different initial concentrations used decrease over time. In the case of 60 and 80 ppm, after 24 hours, sufficient hydroxyl radicals were produced to attack the molecule. After 18 hours in the case of reaction, a 32% decrease is noted, and as time progresses up to 72 h, this decrease is constant but more minor. This may be due to the increase in intermediate compounds that are less susceptible to photooxidation.
Figure 8 shows the percentage degradation values determined using Equation 11.
Where: Cf = final concentration, Ci = initial concentration
Figure 8 shows that at low concentrations, the efficiencies are, on average, the same, 40% on average, which could be because when the concentration of the organic compound is low, the intermediate compounds are more abundant and more complex and can compete with the main molecule to be oxidized. While at high concentrations (60 and 80 ppm), the pyridine molecule is easily oxidized by the hydroxyl radicals formed, which monopolize most of it, considering that natural light is being used.
Kinetic Analysis
This indicates that photocatalytic oxidation reactions follow Langmuir-Hinshelwood-type kinetics (Fogler, 2001; Moctezuma et al., 2016; Mathews, 1992) as follows:
Where: K1C represents the kinetic term of the rate equation, K2C represents the adsorption term of the reactant, and ∑(Ki Ci) represents the adsorption term of all the intermediate products of the degradation reaction of organic compounds.
If the experimental data are analyzed at very short reaction times, the adsorption term of the intermediate products can be neglected.
Based on the above, it can be shown that the following equation can represent the general kinetic form:
If the exponents m and n have a value of 1, the constants K1 and K2 can be determined directly from the graph of reaction rate versus concentration.
Equation (13) can be linearized in the manner recommended by Fogler (2001) and Moctezuma et al. (2016), using the following initial conditions: t=0, C= C
0 and reaction rate, the following equations are obtained:
Equation (16) 's behavior is represented in
Figure 9, where the ordinate at the origin is K
2/K
1, and the slope is given by 1/K
1.
From the values obtained in
Figure 9, we have the values of the constants, and therefore, the previous equation is expressed as follows:
The values of the reaction constants K1= 0.006973501 hr-1 and absorption K2= 0.017939331 L/mg show that k2 > 2* k1. Therefore, it can be said that the compound is absorbed on the surface, which helps to have closer contact with the hydroxyl radicals formed, which allows a better photodegradation of the compound.
Figure 10 shows the behavior of the LH-HW model of the experimental data and the model. The data is observed to have a behavior similar to the model, adjusting to its behavior.
Proposed Reaction Mechanism
The proposed mechanism for pyridine follows the formation pathway of 2-hydroxy pyridine until the double bonds are weakened and the ring cycle of this compound is broken. It can be assumed that carboxylic acids and other acids are formed.
The experimental results show the formation of 2-hydroxypyridine in the first instance. Inspection of the charged resonance forms suggests that the electron density on the alpha and gamma carbon atoms is especially low; consequently, a beta substitution should be expected, also because this position is the only one in which the transition state in the substitution does not have a resonance form with a charge on the trivalent nitrogen.
Once 2-hydroxy pyridine is formed, it can lead to the formation of 2,3-dihydropyridine, but according to the results of the gas-mass study, 2,6-dihydropyridine is formed. This weakens the benzene ring, leading to the weakening of the carbon-nitrogen bond, thus forming the monoamine of 3-pentanoic acid or 3-amino pentanoic acid. (3-amino pentanoic acid)
Many agree that the next step is the formation of succinic acid or, where appropriate, glutamic acid before it breaks down into carboxylic acid compounds or other derivatives.
Subsequently, the formation of the compound acetic acid, butyl ester, and 2-butoxy ethanol is observed.
The proposed mechanism is shown in
Figure 11, supported by the mass gas analyses.