Amine-Functionalized Al-MOF#@ yxSm2O3-ZnO: A Visible Light-Driven Nanocomposite with Excellent Photocatalytic Activity for the Photo-Degradation of Amoxicillin.

A visible light-driven amine-functionalized Al-based MOF#@ yxSm2O3-ZnO nanocomposite (NH2-MOF#@ yxSm2O3-ZnO NCP) was synthesized as an effective photocatalyst for AMX degradation in the presence of ultrasound, in which # is MOF synthesis conditions from MOFI to MOFXII and x and y stand for the weight percentages of Sm2O3-to-ZnO and Sm2O3-ZnO-to-MOF, respectively. The β-lactam antibiotic AMX, which is widely used for treating Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial infections in both animals and humans, was employed as a model pollutant. Using different detection techniques, the synthesized materials were characterized. Furthermore, effects of different synthesis methods, ultrasonic time, precursor concentration, sonication amplitude, and modulators on the MOFs photocatalytic behavior were taken into account. Also, catalytic dose and recycling, H2O2 usage, and operating pH effects were investigated. Compared to the pure forms of NH2-MOF-53(Al) and Sm2O3-ZnO, the NCPs having the optimal Sm2O3-ZnO and NH2-MOF-53(Al) contents highly influenced the photocatalytic activity due to the synergetic impacts of the high charge mobility and the red shift in the NH2-MOF@Sm2O3-ZnO NCPs absorption edge compared to the Sm2O3-ZnO nanoflowers. We used a TOC analyzer, UV/vis spectroscopy, and HPLC chromatogram to estimate the rate of AMX elimination in water over NH2-MOFXII@307Sm2O3-ZnO NCPs as our optimal sample. In addition, after the AMX pollutant degradation, the NH2-MOF@Sm2O3-ZnO NCPs were structurally stable and maintained the majority of their photocatalytic properties even after five runs of recycling process The NH2-MOFXII@307Sm2O3-ZnO NCPs as the superior photocatalysts were more examined and a mechanism for the AMX degradation was suggested. As a suggestion, our obtained results can be used as a starting point for the preparation of the other heterogeneous MOF-based NCPs combined with the Sm2O3-ZnO for a variety of applications such as the environmental remediation.