Zinc Oxide recovered from spent alkaline batteries as photocatalyst for emergent contaminant degradation

MARIA GALLEGOS; FRANCO DUBOIS ; LAURA DAMONTE; PAULA CAREGNATO; PAULA I. VILLABRILLE

Santa Fe

Workshop; French Argentinean Workshop on Heterogeneous Catalysis; 2023

INCAPE

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is an antiepileptic and psychiatric drug, belonging to the group of emerging contaminants (EC). The world consumption of this drug is around 1,000 tons per year. It is very persistent and resistant to biodegradation. On the other hand, battery consumption is also an environmental problem due to its final disposal. Zinc, one of the main pollutants, can be released by the attack of climatic agents, leaching through soils to reach surface water courses and aquifers, contaminating the environment. To avoid this harmfulaction, it is possible to obtain ZnO from spent batteries which versatility and its possible use in advanced oxidation processes for the effective removal of EC is widely known. Therefore, in this work, we propose to prepare two ZnO-based materials from battery waste, characterize them, and evaluate their performance in the photocatalytic degradation of CBZ.