Resolving the Tribo-catalytic reaction mechanism for biochar regulated Zinc Oxide and its application in protein transformation

The utilization of mechanical energy to control water pollutants under dark conditions is currently a point of study focus. Herein, biochar-zinc oxide (BC-ZnO) composites with various structures were syn-thesized by co-pyrolysis of cotton and ZnO at different temperature and used for tribo-catalytic reaction. The introduction of BC can improve charge transmission and separation efficiency. Ultraviolet photoelec-tron spectra (UPS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculation prove the addition of BC can reduce work function of ZnO, and enhance its electron-donating ability. Specially, suitable adsorption amount is the key factor to improve the tribo-catalytic performance. When the pyrolysis temperature is 600 degrees C, BC-ZnO has the best degradation efficiency, which can degrade 90% Rhodamine B (RhB) in 75 min, while ZnO can degrade only 38%. On this basis, using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model, the effect of tribo-catalytic reaction on controlling proteins in water was studied by fluorescence excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (3D EEM) and infrared microscope, and the transformation of proteins was further analyzed. This study provides a new strategy to improve the tribo-catalytic perfor-mance of ZnO, and explores its application prospects of biological wastewater control. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.