Biomass-sourced activated carbon on CdSNPs@BBFCO matrix for polymer degradation in aqueous plastic samples and the textile effluent

Plastic pollution has become a serious threat to living organisms on earth. Nanoparticles acquire idiosyncratic potentiality in polymer degradation by improving the degradation process through performing intense photocatalytic degradation. This work presents a novel and simple approach for detecting, degrading, and removing plastic pollutants using cadmium sulfide nanoparticles (CdS) as a coupler, which exhibit excellent adsorption and catalytic properties substituted on Barium/Cobalt on Bismuth ferrite oxide (BBFCO). It is treated with biomass-sourced activated carbon to improve the adhesion power; non-coalesced state and highly permeable CdSNPs@BBFCO/AC nanocomposites formations. The synthesized CdSNPs@BBFCO/AC nanocomposite was used to detect and degrade the real plastic samples like high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and nylon present in the selected samples, obtained from the commercially available polythene bags and the textile effluent. The presence of polymer-based functional groups which is responsible for polymerization was detected using a radical trapping test and degraded to -C=O, -OOH and -OH using CdSNPs@BBFCO/AC nanostructures confirmed using Fourier transform spectroscopy. UV-absorption spectroscopy is used to verify the removal of plastic contaminants from final products obtained after the degradation process. Further, the prepared composites of both CdSNPs@BBFCO and CdSNPs@BBFCO/AC were used to degrade methylene blue dye and the textile effluent, which shows that the activated carbon impregnated composite possesses better enhancement in degradation efficiency, apparent rate constant and the square of correlation coefficient compared with the CdSNPs@BBFCO composites as a catalyst. Therefore, the CdSNPs@BBFCO/AC nanocomposites act as a potential candidate for plastic pollutant detection, degradation, and removal processes.

Automated summary

This study presents a novel and simple approach using cadmium sulfide nanoparticles (CdS) as a coupler to detect, degrade, and remove plastic pollutants. Biomass-sourced activated carbon is used to improve the adhesion power of the CdSNPs@BBFCO/AC nanocomposites, which exhibit excellent adsorption and catalytic properties. The synthesized nanocomposites are able to detect and degrade various types of plastic samples, showing great potential for plastic pollutant detection, degradation, and removal processes.