Photocatalytic degradation of deoxynivalenol using graphene/ZnO hybrids in aqueous suspension

Schematic drawing illustrating synthetic route and the mechanism of charge separation and adsorption-photocatalytic process over graphene/ZnO hybrid photocatalysts under UV light irradiation. [Display omitted] •The graphene/ZnO has been prepared via a simple one-step hydrothermal method.•There is 99% of DON could be photodegraded within 30min by GZ0.3 totally.•Photocatalysis can be used to detoxification firstly and systematically.•The active species on the surface were superoxide radicals and holes. Water-soluble deoxynivalenol (DON) pose a major threat as a potential organic pollutant to water environmental quality. DON is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by molds of the Fusarium genus and one of the most important mycotoxins in cereal commodities, which can be enriched from the contaminated grain by deoxynivalenol in the process of wet processing. In this work, graphene/ZnO hybrids has been successfully prepared via a simple one-step hydrothermal method and exhibited superior photocatalytic activity for the photodegradation of DON under the irradiation of UV light. The UV light photocatalytic activity of graphene/ZnO hybrid GZ0.3 was 3.1 times than pure ZnO and about 99% of DON (15ppm) could be photodegraded within 30min totally while there were three peaks of intermediate products appeared. The ESI/MS analysis confirmed the presence of DON and degradation product with the secondary mass spectrogram in the positive ESI mode. Overall, this work could provide new insights into the fabrication of graphene/ZnO hybrids composite as high performance photocatalysts and facilitate their application in the mycotoxin detoxification and environmental protection issues.