Synthesis of a Novel Catalyst MnO/CNTs for Microwave-Induced Degradation of Tetracycline

• Published in: Catalysts Vol. 9; no. 11; p. 911
• Main Authors: Liu, Tianming, Yuan, Guobao, Lv, Guocheng, Li, Yuxin, Liao, Libing, Qiu, Siyao, Sun, Chenghua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2019
• Subjects: Antibiotics; Aqueous solutions; Bacterial infections; Bonding strength; Carbon; Carbon nanotubes; Catalysts; Chemical reactions; Chemical synthesis; Contaminants; degradation; Efficiency; Hydroxyl radicals; manganese oxide; Manganese oxides; microwave-induced; Nanoparticles; Organic contaminants; Performance degradation; Spectrum analysis; tetracycline
• ISSN: 2073-4344; 2073-4344
• DOI: 10.3390/catal9110911

Microwave-induced catalytic degradation (MICD) has been considered as one of the most prospective approaches to remove organic contaminants from water. High-performance catalysts, ideally offering efficient degradation ability, are essential to this process. This work reports the fabrication of manganese oxide on carbon nanotubes (MnO/CNTs) as an efficient catalyst under microwave irradiation (MI) to remove tetracycline (TC) from aqueous solution. The hybrid MnO/CNTs structure shows excellent performance in TC degradation. Combining experimental characterization and theoretical calculations, synergistic mechanisms are revealed: (i) Strong MnO/CNTs interaction stabilizes Mn(II) through interfacial bonding; (ii) high-spin states associated with low coordinated Mn(II) play a major role in MICD; and (iii) superoxide radicals (•O2−) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) induced by microwave input are identified as the major active species.