Investigation of photocatalytic process for iron disulfide-bismuth oxide nanocomposites by using response surface methodology: Structural and antibacterial properties

We report the preparation of the efficient photocatalyst Bi2O3, and FeS2-Bi2O3 nanocomposites. Nanomaterials prepared with sonochemical assisted hydrothermal methods. The morphology sensitization and optical changes of the nanocomposites were studied using dynamic light scattering and UV–vis spectroscopy analysis, X-ray photoelectron and diffraction analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The crystallite size and band gap values of Bi2O3, FeS2-Bi2O3-0, FeS2-Bi2O3-1 and FeS2-Bi2O3-2 have obtained from XRD and UV–vis DRS analysis and found 50.12, 59.60, 61.42 and 63.44 nm and 2.85, 2.67, 2.56 and 2.50 eV, respectively. Photocatalytic degradation of Phenytoin as drug pollution has been investigated under UV light irradiation. The FeS2-Bi2O3–2 showed higher efficiency in the degradation of Phenytoin with 97.5% degradation efficiency after 50 min under UV light illumination. The optimum catalytic parameters such as time and pH were discussed. The efficacy of degradation of Phenytoin increased as time raised. The optimal pH was around 5 where the reaction rate decreases above and under this pH value. The other objective of this study is the investigation of cytotoxicity properties of FeS2-Bi2O3 nanocomposites against HeLa cell line with MTT assay method. The synthesized nanomaterials were tested for their antibacterial properties against pathogenic microorganisms Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Salmonella. The antimicrobial property FeS2-Bi2O3-2 was observed with a maximum of zone inhibition.