Photo-catalytic degradation of tamoxifen by using a novel synthesized magnetic nanocomposite of FeCl2@ac@ZnO: A study on the pathway, modeling, and sensitivity analysis using artificial neural network (AAN)

Tamoxifen (TMX) is a low biodegradable non-steroidal tri-phenyl ethylene and is one of the most widely used anti-cancer drugs, which is used in various stages of treatment, inhibition, and prevention of breast cancer. TMX can end up in the water bodies in several ways such as hospital and domestic effluents, and excretion via urine and feces of the patients that use it. Among treatment methods, Advanced Oxidation processes (AOPs), photo-catalytic degradation as a practical way, is used to degrade TMX by producing nonselective free radicals (i.e. •OH). This study aimed to synthesize a novel FeCl2 @AC@ZnO magnetic nano-composite and its efficiency for degradation of TMX as a low biodegradable carbohydrate. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) was used to study sensitivity analysis of variables. The results of the characterization study indicated that FeCl2 @AC@ZnO had average particle size of 56 nm, gap band ~ 3.0 and excellent morphology. According to the results, the degradation efficiency of TMX under pH 7, catalyst dose 0.005 g/L, initial concentration 10 mg/L reached 100% and the produced intermediated compounds were 2-methyl-3 H-imidazol-4-ol, 2-Oxopyrrolidin-1-yl) acetic Acid, 2-nitropropanoic-acid, 4-Heptanol, 2,4,6-trimethyl, and 3-Methyl-1-butanol. The result of sensitivity analysis revealed that the order of the parameters effect was as follow contact time ˃ pH ˃ concentration. Therefore, it can be concluded that the FeCl2 @AC@ZnO magnetic nano-composite has a high photocatalytic activity and it can be used in full to degrade TMX from an aqueous solution. [Display omitted] •A novel FeCl2@AC@ZnO magnetic nano-composite was synthesized and characterized.•Tamoxifen (TMX) was completely removed under optimized photo-catalytic process.•Degradation of TMX followed pseudo-first-order kinetics.•ANN introduced contact time and pH as the most influential parameters.•The by-product formed were simple carbohydrates.