Treatment and ecotoxicity assessment of wastewater containing organic pollutants using a new CoFe2O4/biochar photocatalyst composite.

Abstract

This is the first record on literature to use biochar as support for CoFe₂O₄ to applicate and evaluate it as photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants. The support was verified by XRD, FT-IR, SEM, EDS and band gap. Composites CFO1BQ3, CFO1BQ1, and CFO3BQ1 showed 100% degradation in 60 min. This outstanding performance can be related to the drop in band gap energy and recombination rate of e¯/h ⁺. The composites showed better efficiency when compared to pure CoFe₂O₄ (∼78%). This might be associate to the fact that biochar has a high concentration of phenolic, hydroxyl and carboxylic functional groups on its surface. In this reaction h⁺, O₂^•-, and •OH were the reactive species involved in the degradation. The toxicity of ponceau was tested before and after the treatment, through biochemical biomarkers in Danio rerio fish. In general, the treatment proved to be efficient in reducing ponceau toxicity in D. rerio fish.