Issue 8, 2023

Emerging investigator series: enhancing the degradation of ciprofloxacin in water using Oxone activated by urchin-like cubic and hollow-structured cobalt@N-doped carbon prepared by etching-engineering: a comparative study with mechanistic and eco-toxic assessments

Abstract

Ciprofloxacin (CIP) represents the most typical fluoroquinolone antibiotic and is increasingly detected in water environments. For eliminating CIP from water, a hollow-engineered nanostructured cobalt-embedded nitrogen-doped carbon (H-Co@NC) is developed through an etching-engineering technique. H-Co@NC exhibits a cubiform morphology with a hollow configuration covered by thin urchin-like layers, whereas cobalt (Co) nanoparticles are embedded throughout the entire surface. Thus, H-Co@NC shows remarkable catalytic activities for Oxone activation to eliminate CIP from water and outperforms the non-hollow analogue, S-Co@NC, and the commercial Co3O4. The activation energy (Ea) was measured as 48.2 kJ mol−1, which is lower than that reported for most of the catalysts for CIP degradation. The degradation pathway of CIP by H-Co@NC + Oxone is also proposed based on theoretical calculations and detected intermediates. SO4˙, OH˙, and 1O2 are simultaneously generated from H-Co@NC + Oxone, in which SO4˙ shows a dominant role in the CIP degradation. Besides, H-Co@NC preserves its structure over multi-cycle CIP degradation and remains highly effective in various water matrices. CIP degradation by H-Co@NC + Oxone does not lead to the formation of toxic and very toxic by-products during its decomposition process by the eco-toxicity assessment. These features validate that H-Co@NC is an advantageous and promising heterogeneous catalyst for activating Oxone to eliminate CIP from aqueous systems.

Graphical abstract: Emerging investigator series: enhancing the degradation of ciprofloxacin in water using Oxone activated by urchin-like cubic and hollow-structured cobalt@N-doped carbon prepared by etching-engineering: a comparative study with mechanistic and eco-toxic assessments

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Sun 2023
Accepted
18 Dzi 2023
First published
21 Dzi 2023

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2023,9, 1992-2007

Emerging investigator series: enhancing the degradation of ciprofloxacin in water using Oxone activated by urchin-like cubic and hollow-structured cobalt@N-doped carbon prepared by etching-engineering: a comparative study with mechanistic and eco-toxic assessments

D. D. Tuan, Y. Park, J. Wen, H. M. Bui, X. Duan, F. Ghanbari, S. Ghotekar, W. Chen and K. A. Lin, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2023, 9, 1992 DOI: 10.1039/D3EW00009E

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