One-pot synthesis of NiCo-phyllosilicate supported on zeolite for enhanced degradation of antibiotic contaminants

Abstract The overuse of antibiotics currently results in the presence of various antibiotics being detected in water bodies, which poses potential risks to human health and the environment. Therefore, it is highly significant to remove antibiotics from water. In this study, we developed novel rod-like NiCo-phyllosilicate hybrid catalysts on calcined natural zeolite (NiCo@C-zeolite) via a facile one-pot process. The presence of the zeolite served as both a silicon source and a support, maintaining a high specific surface area of the NiCo@C-zeolite. Remarkably, NiCo@C-zeolite exhibited outstanding catalytic performance in antibiotic degradation under PMS activation. Within just 5 min, the degradation rate of metronidazole (MNZ) reached 96.14%, ultimately achieving a final degradation rate of 99.28%. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of catalyst dosage, PMS dosage, MNZ concentration, initial pH value, and various inorganic anions on the degradation efficiency of MNZ. The results demonstrated that NiCo@C-zeolite displayed outstanding efficacy in degrading MNZ under diverse conditions and maintained a degradation rate of 94.86% at 60 min after three consecutive cycles of degradation. Free radical quenching experiments revealed that SO•− 4 played a significant role in the presence of NiCo@C-zeolite-PMS system. These findings indicate that the novel rod-like NiCo-phyllosilicate hybrid catalysts had excellent performance in antibiotic degradation.