Journal of Materials Science, Vol.52, No.9, 5256-5267, 2017
Photocatalytic degradation of ketorolac tromethamine (KTC) using Ag-doped ZnO microplates
In this study, Ag-doped ZnO microplates were prepared via precipitation technique and further characterized by FESEM, EDS, XRD, FTIR, TGA, XPS, UV-DRS and RT-PL techniques. The outcomes indicated that Ag+ ions were well incorporated into ZnO lattice leading to the absorption of ZnO in visible region as well as effective charge separation. The photocatalytic experiments exhibited that Ag-doped ZnO microplates show higher catalytic activity (91%) than bare ZnO (71%) for the degradation of KTC drug under solar illumination. The photocatalytic degradation of KTC drug over Ag-doped ZnO microplates obeyed pseudo first-order kinetics model. Also, the role of active species was examined by the addition of several scavengers in the photocatalytic degradation system. The results indicated that h(+), (OHs)-O-center dot, O-1(2) and (OH)-O-center dot were considered as prime reactive species in photocatalytic degradation process.