Facile synthesis of cobalt-iron layered double hydroxides nanosheets for direct activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) during degradation of fluoroquinolones antibiotics

How to efficiently and fast remove the serious perniciousness of the residual antibiotics in water environment is crucial for protecting ecosystem. Herein, we reported the Fenton-like system based on layered double hydroxides (LDHs) nanosheets for direct peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation efficient for fast removing the typical five fluoroquinolones antibiotics ciprofloxacin (CIP), norfloxacin (NOR), levofloxacin (LEV), enrofloxacin (ENR) and ofloxacin (OFL). A series of CoFe-LDHs nanosheets was one-step fabricated by integrating coprecipitation and in-situ exfoliation method. The as-obtained CoFe-LDHs nanosheets catalysts exhibit thin nanosheets (~3 nm) with high redox properties, abundant oxygen vacancies, appreciable adsorption capacity, remarkable catalytic performance and favorable stability. The variable valent state, cheap, easy-to-obtain and low-toxic Co and Fe elements were used to construct stable LDHs for efficient activation of PMS to degrade quinolone antibiotics. Among them, Co1Fe1-LDHs nanosheets exhibited the best CIP degradation efficiency of 86.9% within 12 min, which is superior to most of previous candidates. The impacts of different reaction parameters, catalyst stability, main reactive oxygen species, the main CIP degradation mechanism and rational degradation pathways were systematically studied. This work offers a feasible strategy to tune the performance of LDHs-based materials in Fenton-like system degradation of antibiotics.