UV sensitive ZnO and TiO2-ZnO nanocrystalline transparent glass-ceramic materials for photocatalytic decontamination of surface water and textile industry wastewater

The dispersion of pollutants in the aquatic environment is an emerging health concern worldwide. In this sense, it is essential to develop new materials that can improve the treatment quality of both water and wastewater. The present study has demonstrated evidence of the applicability of recyclable glass-ceramic materials for the efficient photocatalytic treatment of real surface water and textile industry wastewater. Two glass compositions containing TiO2 or ZnO-TiO2 have been investigated. The studied materials exhibited good performance in terms of humic acid and COD removal from raw surface water and textile industry wastewater, respectively. However, ZnO-TiO2 glass-ceramic photocatalyst was the best photocatalyst with maximum efficiency of 53% HA removal from surface water and 75% decolorization (or 60% COD removal) of wastewater. What is more, the reusability tests confirmed a minor variation (<4%) in the photocatalytic efficacy for three consecutive usages. Therefore, the prepared materials are suitable for the applications in which reusability is an important key factor such as water and wastewater decontamination.