Enhanced catalytic degradation of amoxicillin with TiO2-Fe3O4 composites via a submerged magnetic separation membrane photocatalytic reactor (SMSMPR)

Qilong Li; Hui Kong; Rongrong Jia; Jiahui Shao; Yiliang He

doi:10.1039/c9ra00158a

Enhanced catalytic degradation of amoxicillin with TiO₂-Fe₃O₄ composites via a submerged magnetic separation membrane photocatalytic reactor (SMSMPR)

RSC Adv. 2019 Apr 23;9(22):12538-12546. doi: 10.1039/c9ra00158a. eCollection 2019 Apr 17.

Authors

Qilong Li¹, Hui Kong², Rongrong Jia¹, Jiahui Shao¹, Yiliang He¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 800 Dongchuan Rd Shanghai 200240 China ylhe@sjtu.edu.cn +86-021-54744008.
² School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200030 PR China.

Abstract

A novel photo-Fenton catalytic system for the removal of organic pollutants was presented, including the use of photo-Fenton process and a submerged magnetic separation membrane photocatalytic reactor (SMSMPR). We synthesized TiO₂-Fe₃O₄ composites as the photocatalyst and made full use of the magnetism of the photocatalyst to realize the recollection of the catalyst from the medium, which is critical to the commercialization of photocatalytic technology for wastewater treatment. The photo-Fenton performance of TiO₂-Fe₃O₄ is evaluated with amoxicillin trihydrate (AMX) as a target pollutant. The results indicate that the TiO₂-Fe₃O₄/H₂O₂ oxidation system shows efficient degradation of AMX. Fe₃O₄ could not only enhance the heterogeneous Fenton degradation of organic compounds but also allow the photocatalyst to be magnetically separated from treated water. After four reaction cycles, the TiO₂-Fe₃O₄ composites still exhibit 85.2% removal efficiency of AMX and show excellent recovery properties. Accordingly, the SMSMPR with the TiO₂-Fe₃O₄ composite is a promising way for removing organic pollutants.