A novel fenton-like catalyst for efficient degradation of tetracycline: Application of the concept of "treating the wastes with wastes"

The effective disposal of waste glass is currently a difficult problem. Herein, a novel Fenton-like catalyst (FG@PAM-Fe3O4) with excellent comprehensive properties was prepared for the degradation of tetracycline (TC). Foam glass (FG) prepared from waste glass was selected as the carrier and modified by polyacrylamide (PAM) to improve its adsorption performance. Batch experiments show that 20 mg/L TC is 100 % degraded by FG@PAM-Fe3O4 within 30 min, and the efficacy is still higher than 80 % after 10 times recycling. Meanwhile, FG@PAM-Fe3O4 is just slightly affected by the changes in pH value from 3.0 to 11.0. FG@PAM-Fe3O4 exhibits good anti-interference performance against different inorganic ions and organic pollutants. Notably, the removal efficiency of 20 mg/L TC in the column loading experiment is still nearly 80 % over 10 days with a flowing speed of 0.61 L/h, indicating the good practical application potential of FG@PAM-Fe3O4. Biotoxicity analysis shows that FG@PAM-Fe3O4 greatly reduced the harm of TC, making it more susceptible to biodegradation. In brief, the environmentally friendly concept of "treating the wastes with wastes" was applied to the treatment of effluent in this work. FG@PAM-Fe3O4 can effectively treat wastewater while consuming waste glass, which is of great significance for both sectors.