Environmentally friendly synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles from waste printed circuit boards as photocatalyst in the photodegradation of tetracycline

Abstract

Printed circuit boards (PCBs), can be found in any piece of electrical or electronic equipment. By recycling PCBs, copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) can be obtained, the use of which as photocatalyst has garnered a lot of attention. In this study, the recovery of CuO NPs from PCBs was presented using two approaches; hydrothermal and ammonia leaching methods. For the hydrothermal method, CuO in waste PCBs was leached out using nitric acid while the ammonia leaching method involves the leaching in ammoniacal/ammonium salt solutions. X -ray diffraction analysis showed the pure crystalline phase of CuO NPs. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images showed almost spherically-shaped NPs, with sizes ranging from 45.04 to 172.09 nm. The nitrogen sorption analysis shows the CuO NPs exhibit a type V isotherm with a pore size distribution of between 41.1 to 46.3 nm and a surface area that ranges from 3.6 to 6.8 m2/g. The percentage of tetracycline degradation by CuO from the hydrothermal and ammonia leaching methods were 33.77% and 60.89% under UV light, respectively, and 40.61% and 64.24% under visible light, respectively, after 180 min. This study proved that CuO NPs obtained from waste PCBs showed good photocatalytic performance in the degradation of organic pollutants.