Engineering of ternary photocatalysts nanocomposites based NiS/ZrO2/CdS for boosting of photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants

The key prerequisite for a clean and economical industrial process is a cleaner manufacturing process coupled with sustainability. Additionally, the limited resources for drinking water and the world's rapid population expansion foresaw water crises in several nations. To this end, in this study, novel dual Z-scheme NiS/ZrO2/CdS (NZC) heterojunction photocatalysts were developed. The photodegradation efficiency of the photocatalyst was studied by targeting Tetracycline under direct sunlight radiation which reveals that the NZC ternary nanophotocatalyst exhibits a total removal efficiency of 97.05 % within 120 min and k = 0.0281 min-1, which is the highest compared to bare ZrO2, CdS, NiS, binary CdS/ZrO2 and NiS/ZrO2 heterojunctions. To analyze and understand the properties of the NiS/ZrO2/CdS composite, various measurement techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, HR-TEM, BET, EDX, XPS, DRs, PL, and EPR were utilized. The universality performance of NiS/ZrO2/ CdS was studied by targeting six antibiotics including Tetracycline, Doxycycline, Ofloxacin, Amoxicillin, Cephalexin, and Sulfamethoxazole. The photocatalytic performance of NiS/ZrO2/CdS photocatalyst was investigated by TC degradation under various reaction parameters as pH, initial concentration, the catalyst dosage, variable water source and the drooping in phytotoxicity derived from the photodegradation was measured by cultivation study of Faba bean seeds. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the fabricated NZC dual Z-Scheme system is mainly because of co-effects of ZrO2, CdS and NiS allowing numerous active sites, promoting light harvesting, and endowing separation and charge carries transfer, thereby boosting the photodegradation efficiency of NZC composite. Moreover, NZC nanocomposite was recyclable up to five sequential runs with a considerable photostability.