Photodegradation of endocrine disruptors namely methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, and ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate with N-doped BiOBr nanocomposite

Title : Photodegradation of endocrine disruptors namely methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, and ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate with N-doped BiOBr nanocomposite

Abstract:

The endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) are exogenous substances able to alter the structure or function(s) of the endocrine system and cause adverse effects on several organisms, their progeny, populations, or subpopulations. There are few reports in the literature about the modification of BiOBr with N. There are no reports about N-doped BiOBr for the degradation of  methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, and ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate EDCs. Therefore, due to the environmental problem of EDCs in water sources, the main objective of this work was to photodegdate  two  EDCs in water using the N-doped BiOBr photocatalyst under UV-Vis radiation, reducing the toxicity level of the mixture. Therefore,N-doped BiOBr semiconductor was prepared under laboratory  conditions. The N₂₀BiOBr semiconductor showed the highest photocatalytic activity achieving the complete photodegradation of the EDCs, and 98-99% of mineralization in 25 min. The high efficiency of N₂₀BiOBr for EDCs removal was attributed to the increase of the specific surface area and the effective separation of photogenerated charges by effect of N incorporation. The main photogenerated species involved in the degradation of the pollutants were the superoxide radicals (O₂^•-) and photo-holes (h⁺), and a possible photocatalytic activation mechanism was proposed where suggests the active participation of oxygen vacancies.The effects of nanocomposite concentrations, sun ligth power, EDC concentrations, photodegradation time , Ph and temperature on the photodegradation yields of methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, and ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate was studied. The acute toxicity performed by Daphnia showed 98% toxicity reduction after photodegradation.

Biography:

Prof. Dr. Delia Teresa Sponza is currently working as a professor at Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Environmental Engineering. Scientific study topics are; Environmental engineering microbiology, Environmental engineering ecology, Treatment of fluidized bed and activated sludge systems, Nutrient removal, Activated sludge microbiology, Environmental health, Industrial toxicity and toxicity studies, The effect of heavy metals on microorganisms, Treatment of toxic compounds by anaerobic / aerobic sequential processes, Anaerobic treatment of organic chemicals that cause industrial toxicity and wastewater containing them, Anaerobic treatability of wastewater containing dyes, Treatment of antibiotics with anaerobic and aerobic sequential systems, Anaerobic and aerobic treatment of domestic organic wastes with different industrial treatment sludges, Treatment of polyaromatic compounds with bio-surfactants in anaerobic and aerobic environments, Treatment of petrochemical, Textile and olive processing industry wastewater by sonication, Treatment of olive processing industry wastewater with nanoparticles and the toxicity of nanoparticles. She has many international publications  with an H index of 42 and 6000 citations.