Oxygen-vacancies rich CuFe2O4 catalyst as efficient peroxymonosulfate activator for enhanced oxytetracycline degradation: Performance and mechanism

Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) based advanced oxidation methods have gained attention for eliminating antibiotics like oxytetracycline (OTC) from wastewater. This study presents an innovative approach by incorporating oxygen vacancies (OVs) into CuFe2O4 to create OVs-CuFe2O4 materials. Compared to traditional CuFe2O4, OVs-CuFe2O4 offered superior catalytic performance due to its surface-rich OVs promoting rapid conversion of oxygen and efficient metal redox of Fe(Ⅱ)/Fe(Ⅲ) and Cu(Ⅰ)/Cu(Ⅱ). OVs-CuFe2O4/PMS achieved impressive 95.7 % OTC removal in 45 min with a rate constant of 0.107 min−1, which was 3.87 times of CuFe2O4/PMS. The OVs-CuFe2O4/PMS system exhibited a broad pH tolerance range of 3 to 11 with OTC removal efficiency above 89.3 %. The OVs-CuFe2O4/PMS system produced various free radicals and non-radical for OTC degradation. The OVs-CuFe2O4 also has good stability with removal efficiency of 81.9 % at fourth cycle. This research gives a strategy to construct oxygen vacancies enrich catalysts for efficient activation of PMS and treatment of antibiotics wastewater.