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Ciprofloxacin, a pharmaceutically active compound, is present as a micropollutant in wastewater, which cannot be removed by conventional techniques due to its recalcitrant nature. Therefore, in the present study, the photocatalytic degradation of this bio-toxic compound was demonstrated using a three-dimensional sulfur-doped graphitic-carbon nitride/zinc oxide hybrid, with enriched oxygen vacancies. The influence of various water matrices and experimental conditions on the ciprofloxacin degradation was optimized. The hybrid material showed 98.8% and 75.8% degradation efficiency under optimum experimental conditions (i.e., catalyst dose: 1 g/L; pH: 5; initial ciprofloxacin concentration: 20 mg/L; temperature: 27 °C) under ultraviolet (UV) and visible light, respectively. A neural-network-based multivariate approach was used to predict a significant model considering the experimental conditions that showed adequate statistical significance (R 2 : 0.992 and F-value: 8707.1). The relative significance of the experimental conditions was assessed, suggesting that the initial ciprofloxacin concentration has a more significant effect on the degradation efficiency than the other factors. The rate kinetics and reaction mechanisms for ciprofloxacin degradation were demonstrated, and the driving radicals involved were identified. A higher rate of reaction was found under UV irradiation (0.01702 min -1 ) than under visible light (0.00802 min -1 ). Superoxide radicals were identified as the main driving radicals, which caused substantial photocatalytic reactions among the hybrid and ciprofloxacin molecules. Microscopic and macroscopic analyses of the used hybrid were conducted, which confirmed the presence of higher defect concentrations, crystallinity, and interlinked stacked structure in the hybrid. Hence, the 3D hybrid can be efficiently used and reused for ciprofloxacin degradation. This advanced photocatalytic system can be widely used to remediate emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Polyacrylic acid capped Fe 3 O 4 - Cu-MOF (i-MOF) hybrid was prepared for rapid and selective lead removal, with 93% removal efficiency, exceptional selectivity, and adsorption capacity of 610 mg/g and 91% of i-MOF hybrid could be easily separated from the contaminated water using magnetic separation. The adsorption process followed a pseudo-second-order model and the adsorption efficiency decreased from 93% to 83% on raising the temperature from 25 °C to 40 °C. The change in equilibrium adsorption capacity with respect to equilibrium adsorbate concentration followed the Langmuir isotherm model. i-MOF had a high selectivity coefficient and removal efficiency for lead ions even when exposed simultaneously with naturally abundant cations (Na(I), Ca(II), Mg(II)). Release of Cu(II) ions from the i-MOF after Pb(II) removal suggested suggested ion-exchange to be the dominant removal mechanism. This new finding for Pb(II) removal with excellent adsorption performance using i-MOF through ion exchange based approach is a viable option for treating lead contaminated water., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)