Construction of urchin-like core-shell Fe/Fe2O3@UiO-66 hybrid for effective tetracycline reduction and photocatalytic oxidation

Xiangyu Wang; Min Jiang; Iseult Lynch; Zhiling Guo; Peng Zhang; Lisi Wu; Jun Ma

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122280

Construction of urchin-like core-shell Fe/Fe₂O₃@UiO-66 hybrid for effective tetracycline reduction and photocatalytic oxidation

Environ Pollut. 2023 Nov 1:336:122280. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122280. Epub 2023 Aug 11.

Authors

Xiangyu Wang¹, Min Jiang², Iseult Lynch³, Zhiling Guo³, Peng Zhang³, Lisi Wu³, Jun Ma⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China; School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. Electronic address: imusthlee2014@sina.com.
² Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China.
³ School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China.

PMID: 37573962
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122280

Abstract

Although Fe/Fe₂O₃ has potential application compared with nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI), its smooth structure largely limits the catalytic performance. To address this challenge, we innovatively constructed highly efficient composite Fe/Fe₂O₃@UiO-66 via employing an urchin-like core-shell structure of Fe/Fe₂O₃ onto UiO-66 through a facile ion exchange precipitation method without inert gas protection. The characterization results show the urchin-like core-shell configuration can extend the life span of Fe⁰ and produce more active sites. Besides, the absorption spectrum is broadened by Fe₂O₃ which has narrow band gap and the high-efficiency separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs is obtained with the load of Fe/Fe₂O₃. Moreover, Two-parameter pseudo-first-order decay model fits well with the reduction and adsorption of composites in the dark reaction, and a plausible pathway for tetracycline (TC) degradation is also proposed. The findings of this research provide a promising method for promoting the catalytic properties of MOF-based materials and Fe/Fe₂O₃.

Keywords: Fe/Fe(2)O(3); Photocatalysis; Tetracycline; UiO-66; Urchin-like nanohybrid.