Enhancement of Peroxydisulfate Activation for Complete Degradation of Refractory Tetracycline by 3D Self-Supported MoS/MXene Nanocomplex.

Antibiotic abuse, particularly the excessive use of tetracycline (TC), a drug with significant environmental risk, has gravely harmed natural water bodies and even posed danger to human health. In this study, a three-dimensional self-supported MoS/MXene nanohybrid with an expanded layer spacing was synthesized via a facile one-step hydrothermal method and used to activate peroxydisulfate (PDS) for the complete degradation of TC. The results showed that a stronger •OH signal was detected in the aqueous solution containing MoS/MXene, demonstrating a superior PDS activation effect compared to MoS or TiCT MXene alone. Under the conditions of a catalyst dosage of 0.4 g/L, a PDS concentration of 0.4 mM, and pH = 5.0, the MoS/MXene/PDS system was able to fully eliminate TC within one hour, which was probably due to the presence of several reactive oxygen species (ROS) (•OH, SO, and O) in the system. The high TC degradation efficiency could be maintained under the influence of various interfering ions and after five cycles, indicating that MoS/MXene has good anti-interference and reusability performance. Furthermore, the possible degradation pathways were proposed by combining liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) data and other findings, and the mechanism of the MoS/MXene/PDS system on the degradation process of TC was elucidated by deducing the possible mechanism of ROS generation in the reaction process. All of these findings suggest that the MoS/MXene composite catalyst has strong antibiotic removal capabilities with a wide range of application prospects.