Electrospun cobalt ferrite nanofiber as a magnetic and effective heterogeneous catalyst for activating peroxymonosulfate to degrade sulfosalicylic acid

While Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) are frequently employed for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade organic contaminants, Co3O4 NPs are easily aggregated and difficult to recover from water; thus cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) has been considered as a magnetically-controllable alternative to Co3O4. Moreover, CoFe2O4 can be fabricated into high-aspect-ratio nanofibmus structures to configure NPs into fibrous morphologies for preventing aggregation but exhibiting superior textural properties with. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop such a CoFe2O4 nanofiber (CFNF) through the electrospinning technique as a magnetic catalyst for activating PMS to degrade SUA. The resultant CFNF consists of CoFe2O4 NPs configured to the fibrous structure in CFNF for enabling CFNF to possess advantageous morphology, and textural properties. Thus, CFNF exhibits a higher catalytic activity for activating PMS to degrade SUA than the typical commercial Co3O4 NP as SUA was completely eliminated by CFNF-activated PMS in 45 min with k(obs) = 0.08 min(-1), whereas Co3O4 NP-activated PMS merely eliminated similar to 20% of SUA. The E a of SUA degradation by CFNF-activated PMS was 24.6 kJ/mol, which is significantly lower than reported E-a values by other catalysts, and CFNF could be reused 5 times without loss of catalytic activities. These features certifies that CFNF is a promising magnetic catalyst for activating PMS to degrade emerging contaminants. The fabrication of CFNF demonstrated here also provides a facile protocol to fabricate fibrous structures of CoFe2O4 for environmental catalytic applications.