Sustainable self-powered degradation of antibiotics using Fe3O4@MoS2/PVDF modified pipe with superior piezoelectric activity: Mechanism insight, toxicity assessment and energy consumption

Using clean energy from the environment to treat organics is a sustainable approach to alleviate the energy shortage and environmental pollution. Water flow energy in pipelines is overlooked due to the lack of efficient energy-converting material. Herein, a novel Fe3O4 @MoS2/PVDF modified pipe was prepared and used for self-powered piezocatalytic degradation of organics in the pipeline. The degradation efficiency of tetracycline, Rhodamine B, ciprofloxacin and oxytetracycline can reach 92.5 %, 90.9 %, 85.9 % and 69.2 %, respectively, at an ultralow flow rate. The energy consumption of this water treatment system was only 12.7 % of that of ultrasonic systems. The theoretical calculation and characterization results indicated that the ultrahigh piezocatalytic efficiency was derived from the coupling effect of Fe3O4/MoS2 and PVDF. EPR results showed that ∙O2-, ∙OH, and h+ were the main active species in degrading organics. The results of the toxicity assessment showed that ecotoxicity could be reduced or even eliminated.