Porous carbon catalyst derived from Co/Cu bimetallic MOFs as PMS activator for efficient degradation of chloramphenicol

Chloramphenicols (CAPs) are a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The widespread use of CAP has led to increasingly severe environmental residues, posing hidden and long-term hazards to human health and aquatic organisms. This study prepared the Co–Cu-carbon composite nanocatalyst Co x Cu 10-x -cnp by one-step pyrolysis of bimetallic MOFs with varying Co/Cu ratios. The catalytic performance of Co x Cu 10-x -cnp was further investigated through CAP degradation. Results indicate that the catalyst with a Co/Cu ratio of 6/4 exhibits the highest catalytic activity, removing 98% of CAP within 60 min with a corresponding rate constant of 0.13 min −1 . It also achieves complete mineralization of 62.5% of CAP. This may be attributed to the Co 2+ /Co 3+ redox pair efficiently generating highly oxidative free radicals, while the excellent catalytic activity and conductivity of copper promote redox cycling and accelerate the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Thus, this study may contribute to advancing the design of bimetallic catalysts and the application of the PMS process in practical wastewater treatment.