Degradation photocatalysis of tetrodotoxin as a poison by gold doped PdO nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites and evaluation of its antibacterial activity

- Au/PdO-RGO nanocomposites were synthesized by sonochemical and deposition-precipitation.
- Au/PdO-RGO nanocomposites exhibited photocatalytic property under UV light irradiation.
- The Au/PdO-RGO nanocomposites have antibacterial applicability.

In this project, synthesis of pure and gold doped PdO-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites by sonochemical and deposition-precipitation process was performed and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The specific surface area of synthesized un-doped and Au doped PdO-RGO nanocomposites is 83.2, 109.1 m2 g− 1 and total pore volume is 0.31, 0.40 cm3 g− 1, respectively. With Tetrodotoxin as a target pollutant, photocatalytic system of UV + photocatalyst + H2O2 was set up. Some influencing parameters, including H2O2 dosage and initial pH value were investigated and the stability of the photocatalyst was also studied during the photocatalysis. The optimum values of operating parameters were found at an initial pH value of 5.0, a H2O2 dosage of 0.15 mmol/L− 1 and photocatalyst dosage of 0.08 g. Under the optimal conditions, the highest removal rate of Tetrodotoxin achieved 95%. Compared with the traditional photo-Fenton system, the UV + photocatalyst + H2O2 system can not only improve the degradation efficiency of Tetrodotoxin, but also reduce the dosage of H2O2 and thus reduce the processing cost. Antibacterial properties of un-doped and Au doped PdO-RGO nanocomposites were investigated by gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli and gram positive Staphylococcus aureus. The results showed that the antibacterial activity enhanced by Au PdO-RGO nanocomposites.