Abstract:
This research was focused on the development of photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) technique cooperating with PZT piezoelectric technique to remove tetracycline in aqueous solutions.
ZnO semiconductor thin films were developed by using a cyclic voltammetric deposition (CVD) method on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). The optimum parameters to prepare FTO/ZnO electrodes under both stirring and non-stirring precursor solution were studied. The preparation of FTO/ZnO electrodes with optimum parameters that could confirm the performance was carried out and the chemical composition, crystal structure, optical properties, and morphology which corresponds to high efficiency of photoelectrocatalytic properties for water oxidation under visible light of such electrodes were tested. It was found that the prepared FTO/ZnO electrode from non-stirring precursor solution was more stable after tetracycline degradation testing than the stirring method. The FTO/ZnO anode electrode with optimum conditions under the non-stirring precursor was able to eliminate tetracycline up to 51% within 1 hour by using PEC technique together with piezoelectric technique. Such efficiency was over twice as much as that using only PEC technique. When the best FTO/ZnO electrode mentioned above was used in prototype cell, it was found that within 3 hours, 62% and 53% of tetracycline were removed by using PEC technique together with piezoelectric technique, and using only PEC technique, respectively.
To sum up, an anode FTO/ZnO electrode from CVD method was successfully developed and it could be confirmed that stirring precursor solution with various optimum factors affected the photoelectrocatalytic activities for water oxidation reaction. Hence, understanding of its catalytic mechanism could be drawn from the research and a large scale prototype for tetracycline degradation could be developed for further development to remove antibiotics contaminated in wastewater.