Reductive transformation of profenofos with nanoscale Fe/Ni particles

Profenofos is an abundantly used organophosphate pesticide in agriculture but its excessive use may lead to hazardous effects on environment. Thus, the present study focused on the reductive transformation of this pesticide in the presence of Fe/Ni bimetallic nanoparticles by optimizing the process parameters such as stirring time, nanoparticles dose, pH, and initial pesticide concentration. The results of reductive transformation were compared with photodegradation studies. It was found that with the increase in UV irradiation time, the percent degradation was increased. After 660 min, a 78% photodegradation of 100 μM solution of pesticide was observed. On increasing the initial pesticide concentration to 200 μM, the maximum degradation was achieved in 570 min, but here, only 73% degradation was observed. The rates of photodegradation observed with 100 to 400 μM solutions were 1.4 × 10^-3, 1.5 × 10^-3, 1.5 × 10^-3, and 5 × 10^-4 min^-1 respectively.In case of reductive transformation carried out in the presence of Fe/Ni bimetallic nanoparticles, the degradation was observed to be increased from 78 to 93.9% in only 180 min. A further increase in pesticide concentration led to a decrease in degradation. Under these conditions, the rate of reaction was found to be 1.09 × 10^-2 min^-1. A 93% degradation of profenofos was further increased to 98% when the quantity of nanoparticles was increased twice; hence, a significant reduction in time of irradiation was observed. Reductive transformation of pesticide thus provided an efficient and cheaper method for reducing the burden of profenofos from the environment.