Enhanced Electric Field via Multicomponent Synergistic Coordination on Single-Atom Catalysts for Antibiotic Mineralization in Water

The persistence of antibiotics in aquatic ecosystems poses significant long-term ecological and public health risks. Nevertheless, current remediation approaches face critical limitations, including high energy consumption and interference from dissolved organic carbon (DOC). To address these challenges, we developed an innovative N,O-doped graphene-like coordinated single-atom iron catalyst (Fe_SA-N,O-GO) using silkworm excrement as a sustainable precursor. The catalyst features robust Fe-π interactions between high-spin Fe atoms and the N,O-GO support, generating a substantial surface electric field (∼146 mV). This unique configuration enables Fe_SA-N,O-GO to achieve remarkable degradation efficiency for multiple antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin (CIP), tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and norfloxacin (NFX), without requiring external peroxides or additional energy input. Complete antibiotic removal (100%) was attained within 90 min, accompanied by total organic carbon removal of 65.2-79.7%. Most importantly, the catalytic performance was further enhanced in DOC-containing real water samples, where synergistic coordination of DOC-antibiotics-H₂O on Fe_SA-N,O-GO amplified the surface electric field effect. Our findings demonstrate the promising potential of harnessing electric energy generated through multicomponent coordination on single-atom catalysts for developing sustainable and cost-effective solutions for water micropollutant remediation.