The combined effectiveness of activated carbon (AC) / ZnO for the adsorption of mebeverine hydrochloride / photocatalytic degradation under sunlight.

The photocatalytic degradation of the Mebeverine hydrochloride (MEB) by ZnO and the combined ZnO-Activated Carbon (ZnO-AC) under solar light has been investigated in batch mode. The AC was prepared from dates stems using ZnCl₂ as chemical activation agent. The effect of some operating parameters on the MEB degradation efficiency such as: photocatalyst dose, solution pH and initial MEB concentration has been examined. The results revealed that the surface reaction on ZnO plays a crucial role in the MEB photo-degradation as confirmed by UV-Visible spectrophotometry. The photocatalytic efficiency of the mixture ZnO-AC is dependent on the mass ratio ZnO/AC, which was optimized for a value of 15 wt%. The MEB degradation kinetics follows a pseudo first order model and the Langmuir-Hinselwood (L-H) model fit adequately the experimental data. Besides, our results show that the combined system (adsorption/photocatalysis) is effective for the MEB degradation than the photocatalysis process alone. A comparative study with the literature indicated the benefits of coupling ZnO-AC under the solar light (93 mW cm⁻²). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]