Fabrication of nano-hammer shaped CuO@HApNWs for catalytic degradation of tetracycline

Abstract

With widespread and excessive use of antibiotics in medicine, poultry farming, and aquaculture, antibiotic residues have become a significant threat to both eco-environment and human health. In this paper, using hydroxyapatite nanowires (HApNWs) as an ecologically compatible carrier, a novel nano-hammer shaped conjunction with HApNW conjugating CuO microspheres (CuO@HApNWs) was successfully synthesized by in-situ agglomeration method. The catalytic degradation performance of the nano-hammer shaped CuO@HApNWs with Fenton-like activation was investigated by using tetracycline (TC) as a representative antibiotic pollutant. Remarkably, it exhibited excellent catalytic activity, which the removal rate of TC got to 92.0% within 40 min, and the pseudo-second-order reaction kinetic constant was 18.33 × 10−3 L mg−1·min−1, which was 26 times and 5 times than that of HApNWs and CuO, respectively. Furthermore, after recycling 6 times, the degradation efficiency of TC still remained above 85 %. Based on radical scavenger tests and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, it demonstrated that the excellent activity of CuO@HApNWs was mainly attributed to the fact that Fenton-like activation promotes the circulation of Cu2+ and Cu+, the generated main active oxygen species (•OH and O2−•) achieve efficient degradation of TC. In summary, the nano-hammer shaped CuO@HApNWs could be in-situ synthesed, and used as an eco-friendly Fenton-like catalyst for effectively catalytic degradation of organic pollutants, which has great potential for wastewater treatment.