Facile and green synthesis of ZnFe2O4@CMC as a new magnetic nanophotocatalyst for ciprofloxacin degradation from aqueous media

[Display omitted] •ZnFe2O4@CMC was synthesized by a simple and green hydrothermal method in aqueous media.•The magnetic studies specified the ferromagnetic properties of ZnFe2O4@CMC.•ZnFe2O4@CMC exhibited good chemical stability and reusability.•ZnFe2O4@CMC displayed significant photocatalytic activity for ciprofloxacin photodegradation.•The antibiotic photodegradation followed the pseudo-first order and Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic models (R2=0.997). As an antibacterial agent, ciprofloxacin is an antibiotic which is widely used to treat infections. It is mostly excreted in the non-metabolized form and, finally, enters water through the discharge of sewage and wastewater. The aim of this research is to synthesize ZnFe2O4@CMC and study its efficiency in the removal of CIP during the photocatalytic process. We successfully synthesized the ZnFe2O4@CMC nanobiocomposite by the hydrothermal method. The prepared photocatalyst was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) technique, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-DRS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and mapping. The photocatalytic activity of ZnFe2O4@CMC was evaluated by investigating the effect of reaction time (20–120min), initial CIP concentration (5–30mg/L), pH (3–11), photocatalyst dosage (0.1–0.5g), degradation kinetic and TOC removal parameters in the removal of CIP. The optimum conditions for the maximum removal efficiency in the synthetic (87%) and real (79%) samples were pH=7, initial CIP concentration =5mg/L, photocatalyst =0.3g and irradiation time =100min. The removal efficiency of TOC by the photocatalytic process was reported 75% in the optimal condition. The kinetic studies showed that the photocatalytic degradation of CIP followed the pseudo-first order kinetic and Langmuir-Hinshelwood equation. The new magnetic ZnFe2O4@CMC nanobiocomposite demonstrated good chemical stability and reusability after five runs. This work introduced a new magnetic nanocomposite and also provided a new idea for the removal of antibiotics from aqueous media.