Abstract
Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and its antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are potential threats to public health. Microwave catalytic technology is an efficient environmental remediation technology, and a reasonable design of the catalyst enables the system to achieve an ideal remediation effect under low microwave power. In this study, a microwave catalyst (FeCO-2) that activates molecular oxygen (O2) was designed on the basis of rational theoretical organization. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to predict the catalytic performance of FeCO-2 in the microwave field. The mechanism of active substance generation and successful construction of the MW/FeCO-2 catalytic system were verified by experimental studies. The abundance of Fe-O bonds alters the electronic structure of the iron carbide material (Fe@C), adjusts the conduction band potential of the material, reduces the reaction energy barrier, facilitates exciton dissociation under microwave, and facilitate O2 activation. The application of the MW/FeCO-2 system was verified with secondary effluent from a farm wastewater treatment process: 90.62 % SMX and over 86.77 % of ARGs were removed within 15 min. This study provides a new technique to efficiently simultaneously eliminate antibiotics and their resistance genes. In addition, this study provides ideas for the construction of a microwave catalytic system and explains the mechanism of the microwave catalytic process.
Published Version
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