Fe-N-C catalyst coated on carbon felt for efficient degradation of antibiotics via electro-Fenton process

In this study, a novel electro-Fenton (E-Fenton) system by using Fe-N-C catalyst supported on carbon felt (CF/ Fe-N-C) as the cathodic catalyst and air as the oxygen source was developed. The CF/Fe-N-C catalyst possessed a reticulated architecture with evenly distributed iron nanoparticles embedded in the N-rich carbon matrix, thus exposing abundant surface active sites to accelerate the electrochemical production of H2O2. Moreover, the Fe-Nx active sites on the surface of the CF/Fe-N-C catalysts allowed the in-situ activation of H2O2 to produce large amount of hydroxyl radicals, resulting in the highly efficient degradation and minerali-zation of antibiotics in aqueous solution. Degradation of levofloxacin (LFX), sulfamethoxazole, meropenem and tetracycline reached 96.1 %, 99.7 %, 98.8 %, and 95.5 % in the CF/Fe-N-C mediated E-Fenton systems within 40 min, respectively. The CF/Fe-N-C catalyst also exhibited outstanding reusability and stability, retaining 94.8 % of the removal percentage for LFX after nine consecutive reaction cycles. This study provides a cost-effective approach for the in-situ fabrication of reticular nanostructure and sheds a new light of this novel nanocatalyst mediated EF reactions for the treatment of antibiotic wastewater.