Degradation of ciprofloxacin using hematite/MOF nanocomposite as a heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst: A comparison of composite and core-shell structures

A novel strategy was described to fabricate hematite-MOF materials with morphologies (core-shell) and (composite) as an efficient peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator for degrading ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotics. First, α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles (NPs) with a size distribution range of 80 nm were prepared by surfactant-assisted reflux method. Then, cobalt-based metal-organic framework (ZIF-67) was grown onto the α-Fe₂O₃ NPs with ultrasonic and solvothermal method, which can control the nanostructures morphology. The physicochemical properties of these nanostructures were probed by ATR-IR, WA-XRD, FESEM, VSM, TEM, and EDS spectroscopy. The results showed that all the added CIP (20 ppm) antibiotics were completely degraded in 30 min in the α-Fe₂O₃/ZIF-67 (0.10 g/L) and PMS (0.20 g/L) system with rate constant of 0.130 min^-1. To validate the merits of the α-Fe₂O₃/ZIF-67, α-Fe₂O₃@ZIF-67 core-shell nanostructures were also applied under similar conditions. The findings demonstrated that Co/Fe species within α-Fe₂O₃/ZIF-67 composite catalyzed PMS synergistically to the formation of the OH and SO₄^- and ¹O₂ for CIP degradation. Furthermore, α-Fe₂O₃/ZIF-67 showed good recyclability enabling facile separation of the catalyst from reaction mixtures using an external magnet. The current protocol can be a useful criterion in designing various Magnetic-MOF composites with controlled morphologies for environmental remediation.