Preparation of NiO/WO3 Heterostructure and Photocatalytic Properties in Removal of Lincomycin Antibiotic: Experimental Study and Molecular Dynamic Simulation

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of NiO/WO3 heterostructure photocatalytic process for removal of lincomycin antibiotic from aqueous solutions. WO3, NiO, and NiO/WO3 particles were synthesized and characterized by several techniques. NiO and WO3 photocatalytic properties in removal of lincomycin antibiotic were evaluated from experimental and theoretical perspectives. The influence of various parameters such as type of irradiation and photocatalyst, initial concentration of lincomycin (mg/L), NiO loading percentage (wt %), mass of NiO/WO3 (g), time (h), and pH were investigated. According to the results, the interaction energy for lincomycin adsorbed on NiO surface was –114.717 kJ mol–1 and for adsorbed on WO3 surface was –28.379 kJ mol–1. It is apparent from these interaction energy values that lincomycin adsorbed on WO3 surface has more negative Eint values and stronger interactions as compared to NiO surface. According to the experimental and theoretical results, loading of NiO onto WO3 increased the catalyst adsorption to lincomycin and ultimately increased the removal efficiency. The results shown that pH plays an important role in the removal of lincomycin. The maximum removal efficiency of 98.56% was obtained at pH 5, 0.2 g NiO/WO3 (2 wt %), 25 mg/L initial lincomycin concentration and 2 h exposure under sunlight.