One-pot green preparation of deep eutectic solvent-assisted ZnO/GO nanocomposite for cefixime trihydrate photocatalytic degradation under UV-A irradiation

In this study, one of the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) was selected for the pharmaceutical’s treatment from wastewaters. For this purpose, deep eutectic solvent (DES) consisting of choline-chloride and ethylene glycol at 1:2 M ratio was synthesized for preparation of zinc oxide/graphene oxide (ZnO/GO/DES) photocatalyst for degradation of the cefixime trihydrate (CFX) as a model of antibiotic via UV-A radiation. Photocatalytic degradation of CFX was statistically maximized as a response through the design of the experiments using a face-centered central composite design (FCCCD). The catalyst dose (0.3–0.7 g L−1), pH of media (4–10), and antibiotic concentration (20–50 mg L−1) were taken as a factor to construct the experimental design. Besides, photocatalytic reaction results showed that using DES served as at high degradation performance as 86% CFX degradation under 0.532 g L−1 catalyst dose, 20.13 mg L−1 initial CFX concentration, and 4.03 pH using UV-A radiation. Photocatalysts with DES have proved a crucial catalyst in antibiotic resistance in water treatment. Thus, the prepared deep eutectic solvent-based photocatalyst indicates marvelous effects for eliminating CFX.