Bimetal-organic framework derived CoFe/NC porous hybrid nanorods as high-performance persulfate activators for bisphenol a degradation

Advanced oxidation based on persulfate (PS) activation presents one of the most promising methods to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) to deal with the increasing environmental contamination. However, the half-life periods of most ROS generated from PS activation are quite short. To this end, using bimetallic amino-functionalized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as both a precursor and a template yields functional N-doped carbonaceous hybrid nanorods (FeCo-NC) are synthesized, characterized, and studied. The results demonstrate FeCo-NC600 can effectively dissociate persulfate into ROS to degrade bisphenol A (BPA) in absence of heat and light owing to the well-defined structure and metal coordination provided by pristine MOFs and N-doped carbon network. In the FeCo-NC600/PS system, BPA achieved a complete removal in 20 min with a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.2876 min⁻¹, and about 85% of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) removal was observed. In addition, the catalyst can be reused without significant loss in activity. Further studies reveal the contribution of surface bound sulfate radical, surface bound hydroxyl radicals, and singlet oxygen in BPA degradation. Meanwhile, a surface reaction mechanism is proposed, it can achieve the simultaneous generation of ROS on the catalytic site and efficient degradation of BPA on the adsorption site, thereby reducing the migration distance of ROS and excellently overcome the problem of short half-life of ROS, further improving the catalytic activity.