Recycling of polyethylene terephthalate waste bottles and zinc-carbon used batteries for preparation a MOF-based catalyst: Application in photodegradation of organophosphorus pesticides

Abstract

Without doubt, growing consumption of plastic waste and used batteries causes various environmental problems. Recycling such waste materials and converting them to valuable compounds are considered as an environmentally friendly and economically viable choice. In fact, the use of waste-originated compounds and recycling resources for the preparation of metal − organic frameworks (MOFs) seem to be beneficial to both environmental protection and sustainable economic development. In this regard, a waste-originated MOF compound (W-MOF) was successfully prepared from the zinc-carbon (Zn-C) used batteries and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste bottles, both of which served as the pre-precursor agents. In fact, the W-MOF preparation was accomplished by combining Zn(II) ions and terephthalic acid (H₂BDC) precursors recovered from respective Zn-C waste batteries and PET waste bottles. Following that, W-MOF compound was modified with graphene oxide (GO), and the resulting composite (GO-W-MOF) was applied as the catalyst for the photodegradation of two prominent organophosphorus pesticides, namely chlorpyrifos (CPF) and profenofos (PFF). The optimum conditions were set as follows: solution pH 5, the contaminants’ concentration of 1 mg/L, the catalyst dosage of 0.6 g/L, and Vis-irradiation time of 60 min. Additionally, the photodegradation of CPF and PFF well fitted to the first-order kinetic model. Meanwhile, the GO-W-MOF catalyst featured a superb recovery and high stability and a high level of efficiency regarding the treatment of real samples was accomplished as well. As far as the economic and environmental advantages as well as the obtained results are concerned, the applied GO-W-MOF composite, which was derived from the waste recycling process, acted as a suitable catalyst with regard to the photodegradation of CPF and PFF in aqueous solutions.