Zinc oxide-based photocatalysts are widely being recognized as efficient materials to degrade emerging organic contaminants, including pharmaceutically active compounds. Previously, various modifications by doping of various metals and non-metals have been incorporated to enhance the performance of zinc oxide. In this work, a novel hybrid photocatalyst was prepared by fabricating zinc oxide with aluminum and polythiophene. Optimization of the synthesis parameters were conducted by targeting the photocatalytic degradation of 17β-estradiol under ultraviolet-A irradiation. The prepared catalysts were thoroughly characterized to understand the effect of incorporation of aluminum and polythiophene on the physicochemical properties of the photocatalyst along with its degradation efficiency and kinetics. The experimental data set was generated using a central composite design, which was further modeled and optimized using various multivariate optimization techniques. The influence of individual parameters and their interactive effect on the photocatalyst’s performance were analyzed using the outputs of the developed models. Among the employed models, the artificial neural network was found to be the best and was used to generate the optimum conditions (0.47 wt. % polythiophene, 3.14 mol% aluminum and calcination temperature of 174.1 °C) for photocatalyst preparation at which a high 17β-estradiol removal efficiency of about 96 % was achieved.

氧化锌基光催化剂被广泛认为是降解新兴的有机污染物（包括药物活性化合物）的有效材料。以前，已经掺入了通过掺杂各种金属和非金属而进行的各种改性以增强氧化锌的性能。在这项工作中，通过用铝和聚噻吩制造氧化锌来制备新型的杂化光催化剂。通过靶向17β-雌二醇在紫外线-A辐射下的光催化降解来优化合成参数。彻底表征了所制备的催化剂，以了解铝和聚噻吩的掺入对光催化剂的理化性质以及降解效率和动力学的影响。使用中央复合设计生成实验数据集，然后使用各种多元优化技术对其进行进一步建模和优化。使用开发的模型的输出分析了各个参数的影响及其相互作用对光催化剂性能的影响。在所采用的模型中，人工神经网络被认为是最佳的，并用于生成最佳条件（0.47 wt％的聚噻吩，3.14 mol％的铝和煅烧温度为174.1°C）以制备高17β的光催化剂。 -雌二醇的去除效率达到约96％。使用开发的模型的输出分析了各个参数的影响及其相互作用对光催化剂性能的影响。在所采用的模型中，人工神经网络被认为是最佳的，并用于生成最佳条件（0.47 wt％的聚噻吩，3.14 mol％的铝和煅烧温度为174.1°C）以制备高17β的光催化剂。 -雌二醇的去除效率达到约96％。使用开发的模型的输出分析了各个参数的影响及其相互作用对光催化剂性能的影响。在所采用的模型中，人工神经网络被认为是最佳的，并用于生成最佳条件（0.47 wt％的聚噻吩，3.14 mol％的铝和煅烧温度为174.1°C）以制备高17β的光催化剂。 -雌二醇的去除效率达到约96％。