Carbon nanosphere as an efficient support for CoOx nanoparticles on water decontamination via sulfite activation

Sulfite has recently been considered as the most potential alternative to peroxydisulfate and peroxymonosulfate for wastewater treatment because of its low ecotoxicity, low cost and abundant source. Although all sorts of homogeneous catalysts, such as Co2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Mn2+, and so on, are developed for activating sulfites to generate SO4•−, it is of high significance to develop heterogeneous catalysts for wastewater treatment via sulfite activation. Herein, we have employed carbon nanosphere as an efficient support for CoOx nanoparticles on water decontamination via sulfite activation. The comparison with other carbon carriers (including carbon nanotubes and activated carbon) emphasized the vital role of CNS-600 in CoOx/CNS-600 for tetracycline (TC) degradation via Na2SO3 activization. Because CNS-600 presented an uniform structure of nanosphere, with surface nitrogen and oxygen functional groups, which were favorable for Na2SO3 activation and CoOx stabilization. This work proposes an efficient and heterogeneous Co-based nanomaterial for water decontamination via Na2SO3 activization.