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

Designing a green and efficient catalyst to effectively degrade antibiotics is still one of the hot topics of research. Firstly, 1D nanorod Fe 2 O 3 /NaNbO 3 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% Fe 2 O 3 /NaNbO 3 nanorod material exhibits superior degradation rate of TC (89.4% removal efficiency in 90 min), and shows 5.62 times than that of NaNbO 3 nanorods. Under UV–visible light irradiation, 5% Fe 2 O 3 /NaNbO 3 nanorod composite with H 2 O 2 solution can degrade 97.4% of TC in 60 min, which is 12.1 times greater to that of the pure NaNbO 3 nanorods. The outstanding degradation performance may be attributed to the introduction of Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles, which can activate H 2 O 2 more efficiently and produce more free radicals to degrade pollutants. At the same time, the 5% Fe 2 O 3 /NaNbO 3 nanorod composite can also act as an activate persulfate (PS) and generate SO 4 − 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 (Fe 3+ /Fe 2+ and Nb 5+ /Nb 4+ ) and full spectrum response.