Affiliation:
1. Department of Silicate Technology Kaunas University of Technology Radvilenu Road 19 Kaunas LT‐50254 Lithuania
2. Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering (DICAM) Università di Bologna Via Terracini 28 Bologna 40131 Italy
3. National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM) Via Giusti 9 Firenze 50121 Italy
Abstract
AbstractThe persistency of antimicrobial compounds in the water cycle accelerates the issue of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, effective wastewater remediation approaches, which can be implemented on a large scale, are urgently required. This study aims at preparing a sustainable organic/inorganic composite material that can photo‐catalyze the degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater by using visible light. Specifically, films and porous composites are composed of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) as supporting material, and copper sulfide (CuS) as active photocatalyst. It is noteworthy that the proposed composite can be fully produced from waste valorization, since PHBV is a polymer, which can be obtained by fermentation of vegetable wastes, and CuS is synthesized from industrial sulfur wastes. The produced composites show remarkable capabilities in the photodegradation of tetracycline and methylene blue, selected as model organic pollutants. Moreover, the PHBV/CuS composites can be reused multiple times with minimal loss in photocatalytic efficiency. The suggested approach is not only sustainable and cost‐effective, but also solves issues occurring in the application of the photodegradation techniques currently reported, such as the consumption of fossil‐based chemicals and photocatalyst removal from the purified water using with expensive procedures.
Subject
General Environmental Science,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Reference45 articles.
1. World Health Organization Technical brief on water sanitation hygiene and wastewater management to prevent infections and reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance Geneva 2020.
2. United Nations The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022.
3. Proclivities for prevalence and treatment of antibiotics in the ambient water: a review
4. Surveillance for control of antimicrobial resistance
5. World Health Organization Antibiotics resistance 2020.