Biomass waste-derived porous carbon efficient for simultaneous removal of chlortetracycline and hexavalent chromium
Kai Yan, Ruiqi Li, Zhiyu Yang, Xin Li, Yuchen Wang, Guosheng Wu
Abstract
The simultaneous removal of mixed containments of antibiotics and heavy metals is still a big challenge in wastewater treatment. Herein, we report the successful synthesis of N-doped porous carbon (abbreviated as NC) from straw waste through the Maillard reaction to activate sp3-sp2 conversion efficient for the simultaneous removal of chlortetracycline (CTC) and hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)). In 200 min, 96.9% of Cr(VI) was reduced into Cr(III) and 93.1% of CTC was oxidatively degraded. Reactive substances (e.g., h+, e−1, ⋅OH, and ⋅O2-) were verified for the photocatalytic reactions. Besides, the possible degradation intermediates of CTC were analyzed with ultra performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), and the mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of CTC was then proposed. The synthesized bifunctional NC materials could also be applied for the similar system; this will open the door for promising practical applications.