Construction of microwave/PMS combined dual responsive perovskite-MXene system for antibiotic degradation: Synergistic effects of thermal and non-thermal

A series of two-dimensional catalysts (LFCO/Ti3C2-x) were prepared by dispersing perovskite on layered Ti3C2 for microwave-combined PMS catalyzed degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP). Under the optimal treatment conditions (10% Ti3C2 composite, 1.5 g center dot L-1 catalyst dosage, 1 mM PMS concentration and initial pH = 7.0), the catalyst achieved 96.49% CIP removal efficiency within 14 min. The addition of Ti3C2 contributed to the granulation and homogeneous dispersion of perovskite, which facilitated charge transfer and generation of active species. The catalyst characterization before and after the reaction and experiments related to the quenching of the active species confirmed that the thermal effect of MW irradiation promoted the generation of ROS. The nonthermal effect of MW enhanced the electron transfer ability of the catalytic system and accelerated the oxidation of metal sites, which indirectly promoted the generation of ROS. Combined with LC-MS and DFT calculations, the degradation pathway and mechanism of CIP were revealed. Meanwhile, the ecotoxicity of CIP intermediates calculated using ecological structure-activity relationship software indicates that they are much less harmful or not toxic. This work opens new perspectives for the application of perovskite-MXene based catalysts in the rapid and efficient catalytic activation of MW combined AOPs for antibiotic degradation.