Sonocatalytic degradation of tetracycline by BiOBr/FeWO4 nanomaterials and enhancement of sonocatalytic effect

BiOBr/FeWO4 nanomaterials with S-scheme heterojunction were synthesized by a two-step hydrothermal method, and combined with K2S2O8 to perform sonocatalytic degradation of Tetracycline (TC). Under the optimum experimental conditions of initial concentration of TC = 45 mg/L, ultrasonic time = 120 min, ultrasonic power = 500 W, catalyst addition = 1 g/L, pH = 6.5, composite ratio of BiOBr and FeWO4 = 15%, the experiment results showed that BiOBr/FeWO4 sonocatalyst removed TC by 86.54 ± 4.26%. K2S2O8 was verified to enhance the sonocatalytic performance of BiOBr/FeWO4 efficiently, and the removal ratio of TC could reach 92.99 ± 0.24% within 30 min by using BiOBr/FeWO4 and K2S2O8. There was no difference between the diffraction peaks of the XPS of the sonocatalyst before and after four recycles. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) result indicated that the sonocatalyst had excellent reusability. Finally, the mechanism of TC degradation was proposed, and the possible degradation intermediates and pathways of TC by MS Q-TOF were proposed. In conclusion, the synthesized BiOBr/FeWO4 sonocatalyst had excellent sonocatalytic activity, reusability and stability, which indicated good application potential for the sonocatalytic removal of organic pollutants.