Construction of dual ion (Fe3+/Fe2+ and Nb5+/Nb4+) synergy and full spectrum 1D nanorod Fe2O3/NaNbO3 photo-Fenton catalyst for the degradation of antibiotic: Effects of H2O2, S2O82− and toxicity

Abstract Designing a green and efficient catalyst to effectively degrade antibiotics is still one of the hot topics of research. Firstly, 1D nanorod Fe2O3/NaNbO3 composite was successfully prepared by the two steps strategy through hydrothermal combined calcination method. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by the degradation of tetracycline (TC) under visible light irradiation. The test results show that the 5% Fe2O3/NaNbO3 nanorod material exhibits superior degradation rate of TC (89.4% removal efficiency in 90 min), and shows 5.62 times than that of NaNbO3 nanorods. Under UV–visible light irradiation, 5% Fe2O3/NaNbO3 nanorod composite with H2O2 solution can degrade 97.4% of TC in 60 min, which is 12.1 times greater to that of the pure NaNbO3 nanorods. The outstanding degradation performance may be attributed to the introduction of Fe2O3 nanoparticles, which can activate H2O2 more efficiently and produce more free radicals to degrade pollutants. At the same time, the 5% Fe2O3/NaNbO3 nanorod composite can also act as an activate persulfate (PS) and generate SO4 − to efficiently degrade TC. In addition, the catalyst also showed good performance in degrading TC in the presence of different anions and cations. Plant growth experiment (mung bean seeds) results showed that the degradation products have obvious lower toxicity. This study provides new domain about the designing of a photo-Fenton catalyst having dual ion synergy (Fe3+/Fe2+ and Nb5+/Nb4+) and full spectrum response.