Nanocompósitos tridimensionais de grafeno com pedot para a remoção de ivermectina da água

Abstract

An important environmental problem faced is the contamination of water bodies by emerging contaminants. Among the classes of contaminants, drugs such as ivermectin (IVM) have aroused greater concern due to the fact that they are used in large quantities in human and veterinary medicine. Another aggravating factor for the use of ivermectin is related to the pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, where IVM was widely publicized and prescribed to combat the symptoms of Covid-19. However, so far there is no scientific evidence to support its use in the fight against the disease, caused by Covid19. In this context, this work aims to remove the drug ivermectin from water through the adsorption process using sustainable nanocomposite materials of three-dimensional graphene oxide with the polymer poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT). The nanocomposites were obtained by a thermochemical route from the reduction of graphite oxide (Gr-O) and simultaneously the oxidation of the EDOT monomer (3,4ethylenedioxythiophene), using iron chloride. The morphology and physical aspects of the nanocomposites were characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the adsorptive capacity of IVM was evaluated by the synthesized materials. The characterization results show that different structures of the nanocomposites were produced. Overall, the SEM results indicated that the synthesized nanocomposites produced materials with a three-dimensional structure and FTIR characterization confirmed the reduction of three-dimensional samples. In the IVM removal test, FeGO nanocomposite can effectively remove the drug. On the other hand, the adsorptive capacity of the 1:2 EDOTFeGO and 1:3 EDOTFeGO nanocomposites cannot be determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy due to the existence of bands in the material itself, which makes it difficult to quantify the IVM. However, it is noteworthy that the development of the materials is unprecedented and promising, being synthesized by a simple, low-cost route and still has a single preparation step. In addition, materials in the presence of PEDOT present high performance as energy storage capacitors.