Degradation of the Neonicotinoid-containing pesticide (Acetamiprid) using different catalysts by photocatalytic method and investigation of kinetic parameters

The removal of acetamiprid, which is one of the neonicotinoid insecticides, from aqueous solution by photocatalytic oxidation process was investigated in this thesis. ZnO, TiO2 doped ZnO and ZrO2 doped ZnO photocatalysts produced by crystallization method were used as photocatalysts. The chemical and morphological properties of the produced photocatalysts were characterized by SEM-EDS (Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Distribution Spectroscopy), XRD (X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy) and FTIR (Infrared Fourirer Transform Spectroscopy) analyses. Acetamiprid removal was investigated by using photocatalysts produced in the process. First, to determine the effect of UV wavelengths, it was studied in the dark and with lamps with three different wavelengths (daylight, UV-A and UV-C). In the optimum determinations, the first discovery was that the UV-C light source had more removal efficiency. After choosing the appropriate lamp for acetamiprid, the amount of catalyst, initial acetamiprid concentration, initial pH and temperature removals using spectrophotometer were investigated for each catalyst. Acetamiprid's own pH was found to be more suitable as the optimum pH. It was observed that the removal increased as the amount of photocatalysts increased, but remained constant after 1 g/L. For this reason, the amount of all photocatalysts produced was determined as 1 g/L. When the temperature parameter is examined, it can be seen that the produced photocatalysts provide an increase in efficiency with the increase in temperature. Photocatalytic degradation of acetamiprid at different initial concentrations of ZnO, TiO2-doped ZnO and ZrO2-doped ZnO catalysts produced under UV-C light was observed to fit the pseudo-first order kinetic model. Then, the removal efficiencies of acetamiprid were compared using spectrophotometer and HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography). According to HPLC results, approximately 100% removal efficiency was obtained after 120 minutes. Finally, the characteristic peak and fragmentation peaks of acetamiprid were tried to be determined using LC-MS/MS (Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry).