A comparative study on adsorption and catalytic degradation of tetracycline by five magnetic mineral functional materials prepared from steel pickling waste liquor.

Palygorskite (Pal), bentonite (Bent), sepiolite (Sep), zeolite (Zeol), and kaolin (Kaol) were used with steel pickling waste liquor to synthesize magnetic palygorskite (Pal@FeO), magnetic bentonite (Bent@FeO), magnetic sepiolite (Sep@FeO), magnetic zeolite (Zeol@FeO), and magnetic kaolin (Kaol@FeO), for adsorption and catalytic degradation of tetracycline (TC), respectively. Through the study of adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms, the maximum adsorption capacity of Pal@FeO to TC was 149.439 mg/g, which was 1.239 times, 2.260 times, 3.161 times, and 3.448 times of Bent@FeO, Zeol@FeO, Kaol@FeO, and Sep@FeO, respectively. The kinetic study of tetracycline degradation demonstrated that the maximum reaction rate constant of Bent@FeO/HO system was K = 2.12 × 10 min, which was close to that of Pal@FeO/HO, Kaol@FeO/HO system, and was 2.000 times, 2.356 times, 2.650 times, and 4.711 times of FeO/HO, Zeol@FeO/HO, Sep@FeO/HO, and HO system, respectively. The results showed that Pal@FeO and Bent@FeO were more advantageous in the treatment of wastewater containing tetracycline, and efficient reuse of exhausted magnetic minerals and deep mineralization of organic pollutants were achieved by constructing an advanced oxidation system. The BET, VSM, SEM, XPS, XRD, and FTIR were used to characterize the five clay minerals before and after magnetic modification. It was speculated that the surface structure - OH groups of clay minerals might be significant factors influencing the adsorption performance of magnetic minerals on TC, and reduction ability of clay minerals to Fe importantly affected the catalytic performance of magnetic minerals. The specific surface area and morphological structure of clay minerals both affected the adsorption and catalytic degradation of TC by the five magnetic minerals.