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Effect of the Synthesis Route on the Catalytic Performance of Magnetic Fe₂O₃@MOF Beads for the Heterogeneous Fenton-like Degradation of Ciprofloxacin

Mohammed Abdulsalam Kassim, Khazaal Hameed Khazaal, Omar A. Alwash, Rafid N.AL-Mashhadi, Samer Al-Ajooli

Abstract


Highly effective heterogeneous Fenton-like catalysts are promising for the degradation of recalcitrant pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater. Herein, we investigate the impact of the synthesis pathway on their catalytic activity using the as-prepared beads derived from chitosan with or without iron via two step and in situ synthesis, respectively. We aimed to find out the influence of the synthesis strategy on the dispersion of the nanoparticles, accessibility of the active sites and catalytic performance in the degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP). The catalysts were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, FT-IR, XPS, TGA and BET analyses to understand their structural and physicochemical characteristics. From the comparative results, it can be concluded that the in situ synthesized Fe₂O₃@MOF-IS catalyst outperformed the others due to its improved dispersion and interaction of Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles with the porous matrix. Optimized conditions yielded a degradation rate of 91.8 % of CIP (46.3 mg L-1) in 28 min, with 63.5% total organic carbon (TOC) being removed in 115 min. The degradation obeyed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The catalyst was also very stable with only a slight loss of activity after five cycles. Their increased performance is ascribed to the action of the synergistic structure of the composite in terms of efficient activation of H2O2 and hydroxyl radical (•OH). These results indicate that Fe2O3@MOF-IS is a promising and magnetically reusable catalyst that can be applied in a real wastewater treatment process.

Keywords



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DOI: 10.14416/j.asep.2026.08.015

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