Fabrication and Characterization of Co-Doped Fe2O3 Spindles for the Enhanced Photo-Fenton Catalytic Degradation of Tetracycline

Liangpeng Wu; Wenguang Wang; Shaohong Zhang; Dan Mo; Xinjun Li

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c04950

Fabrication and Characterization of Co-Doped Fe₂O₃ Spindles for the Enhanced Photo-Fenton Catalytic Degradation of Tetracycline

ACS Omega. 2021 Dec 2;6(49):33717-33727. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c04950. eCollection 2021 Dec 14.

Authors

Liangpeng Wu^{1

2}, Wenguang Wang³, Shaohong Zhang², Dan Mo¹, Xinjun Li²

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China.
² Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
³ School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.

Abstract

Co-doped Fe₂O₃ spindles with different Co contents were successfully fabricated by a facile one-step hydrothermal method. The crystalline structure, morphology, optical properties, and chemical state of the as-prepared catalysts before and after photo-Fenton reaction were characterized. Co²⁺ incorporated into the Fe₂O₃ lattice was confirmed by the above characterizations. Also, the photocatalytic and photo-Fenton catalytic performances of the samples were evaluated by the degradation of tetracycline (TC) under visible light irradiation in the absence/presence of H₂O₂. The results demonstrated that Co-doped Fe₂O₃ spindles exhibited better catalytic degradation performance in comparison with single Fe₂O₃ spindles, and the sample of Co(5%)-Fe₂O₃ spindles displayed the highest activity and best stability. The improvement of photo-Fenton activity might be attributed to two reasons: On the one hand, Co-doped Fe₂O₃ spindles not only formed the Fe vacancies to reduce the band gap but also could build up an internal electric field, which inhibits electron/hole pair recombination and facilitates the transfer of photoexcited charge carriers. On the other hand, the intrinsic Co²⁺/Co³⁺ redox cycling can accelerate the circulation between Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ in Co(5%)-Fe₂O₃ spindles to facilitate H₂O₂ consumption and produce more ·OH radicals for TC degradation.