(2021) Separation and Purification Technology_Electrospun cobalt ferrite nanofiber as a magnetic and effective heterogeneous catalyst for activating peroxymonosulfate to degrade sulfosalicylic acid

Guan Z.-Y., Kwon E., Lee J., Lin Y.-F., Lin K.-Y.A.

(Elsevier B.V.) Separation and Purification Technology ISSN: 13835866 Vol.259 Issue. Article No.118163 DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2020.118163

While Co₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) are frequently employed for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade organic contaminants, Co₃O₄ NPs are easily aggregated and difficult to recover from water; thus cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) has been considered as a magnetically-controllable alternative to Co₃O₄. Moreover, CoFe₂O₄ can be fabricated into high-aspect-ratio nanofibrous structures to configure NPs into fibrous morphologies for preventing aggregation but exhibiting superior textural properties with. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop such a CoFe₂O₄ nanofiber (CFNF) through the electrospinning technique as a magnetic catalyst for activating PMS to degrade SUA. The resultant CFNF consists of CoFe₂O₄ NPs configured to the fibrous structure in CFNF for enabling CFNF to possess advantageous morphology, and textural properties. Thus, CFNF exhibits a higher catalytic activity for activating PMS to degrade SUA than the typical commercial Co₃O₄ NP as SUA was completely eliminated by CFNF-activated PMS in 45 min with kobs = 0.08 min⁻¹, whereas Co3O4 NP-activated PMS merely eliminated ~20% of SUA. The Ea of SUA degradation by CFNF-activated PMS was 24.6 kJ/mol, which is significantly lower than reported Ea values by other catalysts, and CFNF could be reused 5 times without loss of catalytic activities. These features certifies that CFNF is a promising magnetic catalyst for activating PMS to degrade emerging contaminants. The fabrication of CFNF demonstrated here also provides a facile protocol to fabricate fibrous structures of CoFe2O4 for environmental catalytic applications. © 2020

This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) ( 109-2636-E-005-003- ), Taiwan, and financially supported by the “Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture” from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Taiwan.