Biomimetic anchoring of Fe3O4 onto Ti3C2 MXene for highly efficient removal of organic dyes by Fenton reaction

MXene has emerged as one of the most interest two-dimensional layered materials that has been extensively explored for various applications. In this work, a novel biomimetic method has been developed for the first time to fabricate Ti3C2 MXene based magnetic Fe3O4 composites that relied on the self-polymerization of dopamine and subsequent mild temperature pyrolysis. We demonstrated that many organic dyes could be rapidly degraded by the MXene-MNPs composites through Fenton reaction with extremely high efficiency. The degradation efficiency could be greater than 97 % under the optimized experimental conditions. Moreover, the catalysts displayed a good recyclable property after five continuous cycles. Electron paramagnetic resonance analysis and quenching results indicated that both (OH)-O-center dot and O-2(center dot-) were the reactive species and involved in the degradation process. Owing to the universality and mild reaction conditions of mussel-inspired biomimetic method, many other multifunctional composites with great research interest could also be fabricated. We also believe that this work will provide some new insights for fabrication of highly efficient catalysts for advanced oxidation processes and exploring the critical roles of polydopamine in advanced oxidation procedures.