A Light-Driving Magnetic Nanocomposite Based on Zn/Fe/Cu Embedded in HKUST-1 Applied for Adsorption/Degradation of Indigo Carmine and Pathogens

An environmentally friendly photocatalytic system (type-II heterojunction) is designed and utilized for rapid removal of Indigo carmine (IC) and pathogens from aqueous samples. This photocatalyst contains ZnFe2O4 magnetic NPs, CuO semiconductor, β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) charge transferor, and HKUST-1 light harvester. After the adsorption and photodegradation process, the nanocomposite was separated magnetically, and the supernatant was taken for the UV-Vis analysis. The maximum adsorption and photodegradation efficiency of 94.45% and 97.67% (pH = 5, in 35 minutes) were obtained under blue LED light (7.0 W) irradiation, due to the calculations based on UV-Vis spectrophotometer results. Simple preparation via a self-assembly route and facile separation through a superparamagnetic behavior (leading to great recovery) can be mentioned as the most brilliant excellence. Moreover, the photocatalytic performance of this magnetic nanocomposite was preserved after five recycle runs without any substantial reduction in photocatalytic activity. Also, employing a biopolymer, affordability, availability of the raw materials, good thermal stability, facile magnetic separation, simple operation, and high efficiency are upsides of the prepared nanocomposite, making it a superior photocatalyst to previous analogous systems. This nanocomposite (formulated as ZnFe2O4-CuO@β-CD)/HKUST-1) also exhibited antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and -negative strains. Based on BET (porosity) evaluations, the nanocomposite has rendered a surface area of 451.52 m2/g, which led to great adsorption results representing first-order and pseudo-second-order (Freundlich isotherm) kinetic models for the degradation and adsorption processes, respectively.