Ultrasound-Assisted Biomimetic Synthesis of MOF-Hap Nanocomposite via 10xSBFLike for the Photocatalytic Degradation of Metformin

High levels of emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceutical compounds like metformin (MET), have been an issue for many years. The effective removal of these compounds from wastewater poses a significant challenge and has spurred interest among researchers. This study aims to integrate two of the prominent research interests in photocatalysis, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF), and Hydroxyapatite (HAp), and tests their effectiveness in the photocatalytic degradation of MET. The MOF-HAp was produced using a biomimetic method via 10xSBF-like solution with and without ultrasound assistance at varying biomimetic times. MOF-HAp nanocomposite’s photocatalytic degradation capabilities were tested by degrading MET, considering varying parameters – initial pollutant concentration, catalyst loading, and exposure time. Results showed that a biomimetic time of 6 h synthesized with ultrasound irradiation presented the most promising physicochemical properties for MOF-HAp, as verified by the X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. In the photocatalytic degradation of MET, catalyst loading, exposure time, and initial pollutant concentration were found to have significant effects on the percent degradation. The initial concentration of 8 ppm, catalyst loading of 0.25 g, and 120 min of exposure time produced the highest percent degradation with an average of 82.25%. The findings of this study prove MOF-HAp's potential to effectively degrade organic and pharmaceutical pollutants in wastewater.