Effective photodegradation of methomyl pesticide in concentrated solutions by novel enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 using CdSO4 nanoparticles

Annihilation of electrons–holes recombination process is the main remedy to enhance the photocatalytic activity of the semiconductors photocatalysts. Doping of this class of photocatalysts by foreign nanoparticles is usually utilized to create high Schottky barrier that facilitates electron capture. In the literature, because nonpolar nanoparticles (usually pristine metals, e.g., Ag, Pt, Au, etc.) were utilized in the doping process, the corresponding improvement was relatively low. In this study, CdSO₄-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles are introduced as a powerful and reusable photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of methomyl pesticide in concentrated aqueous solutions. The utilized CdSO₄ nanoparticles form polar grains in the TiO₂ matrix due to the electrons leaving characteristic of the sulfate anion. The introduced nanoparticles could successfully eliminate the harmful pesticide under the sunlight radiation within a very short time (less than 1 h), with a removal capacity reaching 1,000 mg pesticide per gram of the introduced photocatalyst. Moreover, increase in the initial concentration of the methomyl did not affect the photocatalytic performance; typically 300, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/l solutions were completely treated within 30, 30, 40, and 60 min, respectively, using 100 mg catalyst. Interestingly, the photocatalytic efficiency was not affected upon multiple use of the photocatalyst. Moreover, negative activation energy was obtained which reveals super activity of the introduced photocatalyst. The distinct photocatalytic activity indicates the complete annihilation of the electrons–holes recombination process and abundant existence of electrons on the catalyst surfaces due to strong electrons capturing the operation of the utilized polar CdSO₄ nanoparticles. The introduced photocatalyst has been prepared using the sol–gel technique. Overall, the simplicity of the synthesizing procedure and the obtained featured photocatalytic activity strongly recommend the introduced nanoparticles to treat the methomyl-containing polluted water.