Sunlight Photocatalyst for Wastewater Cleanup
Official patent title
Copper hydroxy nitrate/calcium silicate @graphite-phase carbon nitride (Cu2(OH)3NO3/CaSiO3@g-C3N4) based photocatalyst for wastewater treatment
Arabic title: محفز ضوئي قائم على نترات هيدروكسي النحاس/سيليكات الكالسيوم @نتريد الكربون بطور الجرافيت (Cu.SUB.2.(OH).SUB.3.NO.SUB.3./CaSiO.SUB.3.@g-C.SUB.3.N.SUB.4.) لمعالجة مياه الصرف
Invention
Invention
Problem
Organic pollutants in wastewater can resist conventional treatment, while some photocatalysts suffer from poor surface area, rapid charge recombination, agglomeration, or metal leaching.
Why it matters
A sunlight-responsive catalyst could reduce external energy demand for wastewater polishing if pollutant removal, mineralization, stability, and environmental safety are demonstrated.
Approach
The method exposes a pollutant solution and a Cu2(OH)3NO3/CaSiO3@g-C3N4 nanocomposite directly to sunlight. A microwave-assisted process deposits copper-hydroxy-nitrate and calcium-silicate nanorods and nanowires on porous graphitic-carbon-nitride nanosheets.
Who may benefit
Potential beneficiaries include wastewater-treatment developers, photocatalyst manufacturers, industrial-effluent operators, environmental laboratories, and researchers in solar-driven advanced oxidation.
Potential value
The platform combines a visible-light-range bandgap, high-surface-area porous carbon nitride, and microwave-formed copper and calcium nanostructures for direct-sunlight treatment.
Background
Background
Industrial wastewater can contain persistent organic compounds and toxic metal ions. Adsorption and photocatalysis are attractive because they can concentrate pollutants at surfaces and use light to drive degradation, yet graphitic carbon nitride alone has limited area and rapid electron-hole recombination. Adding inorganic phases may improve morphology and charge behavior but introduces agglomeration and leaching risks. The publication describes a copper-hydroxy-nitrate, calcium-silicate, and carbon-nitride composite; quantitative degradation, mineralization, by-product toxicity, and reuse data are not supplied in the extracted evidence.
Technology overview
Technology overview
CaSiO3 is formed from calcium and silicate salts, while g-C3N4 is produced by heating urea. CaSiO3, g-C3N4, and a copper salt are combined in a glycol solvent and microwaved at 160–200 °C and 4–6 bar for 30–90 minutes. The product contains nanorods and nanowires on mesoporous nanosheets, has a stated 2.6–2.8 eV bandgap and 140–160 m2·g−1 BET area, and is contacted with pollutants under direct sunlight.
Potential applications
Potential applications
- Sunlight-driven degradation of organic wastewater pollutants.
- Photocatalytic polishing of selected industrial effluents.
- Solar advanced-oxidation material research.
- Mesoporous carbon-nitride composite development.
Evidence-supported advantages
Evidence-supported advantages
- Direct sunlight is specified as the irradiation source.
- Microwave processing combines the three material components.
- Nanorod, nanowire, nanosheet, pore, bandgap, and surface-area features are defined.
- The stated adsorption behavior follows a pseudo-first-order kinetic model.
Development stage
Development stage
Laboratory synthesis and structural, optical, and adsorption characterization are described; quantitative pollutant degradation, reuse, flow operation, and independent validation are not established.
Commercial opportunity
Commercial opportunity
The catalyst may interest solar wastewater-treatment developers. Commercial assessment needs independent pollutant-specific kinetics, removal and total-organic-carbon data, light-dose normalization, by-product analysis, copper and particle leaching, catalyst recovery and reuse, realistic-water and continuous-flow trials, microwave scale-up economics, and comparison with established advanced-oxidation processes.
Patent classifications
Patent classifications
WIPO IPC
- C01G3/08Compounds containing metals not covered by subclasses C01D or C01F
- B82Y30/00Specific uses or applications of nanostructures; measurement or analysis of nanostructures; manufacture or treatment of nanostructures
CPC
- B82Y30/00Specific uses or applications of nanostructures; measurement or analysis of nanostructures; manufacture or treatment of nanostructures
- C01G3/08Compounds containing metals not covered by subclasses C01D or C01F
- C01P2006/12Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2004/04Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2002/01Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2004/16Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2006/14Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2002/84Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2004/45Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- Y02W10/37Climate-change mitigation technologies related to wastewater treatment or waste management
- C01P2002/72Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2006/16Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
- C01P2006/40Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
Inventors
Inventors
- First inventorBabiker Yagoub Elhadi Abdulkhair
- InventorMohamed Khairy Abdel Fattah Omran
Keywords
Keywords
- photocatalyst
- wastewater treatment
- copper hydroxy nitrate
- calcium silicate
- graphitic carbon nitride
- microwave synthesis
- sunlight
- organic pollutants
Patent document and drawings
Patent document and drawings
The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.