Efficient degradation and adsorption of roxarsone by FeOOH quantum decorated resorcinol-formaldehyde resins via Fenton-like process

Roxarsone (ROX), a feed additive widely used worldwide, was degraded into toxic products in the natural environment. Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) based on nonradicals used for the degradation of ROX had not been reported. Herein, resorcinol-formaldehyde resins (RFs) produced by a simple high-temperature hydrothermal method had efficient photocatalytic properties to produce H2O2. FeOOH quantum dots (QDs) act as the activator and electron shuttle to decompose H2O2 to produce O-1(2). RFs decorated with FeOOH quantum dots (RFs-Fe-QDs) were successfully synthesized and completely remove ROX with a rate of 0.03649 min(-1) under simulated sunlight. Otherwise, the 99.42% arsenic-containing portion that shed from Roxarsone was eventually converted to As(V) and in-situ adsorbed by FeOOH quantum dots. The experiment data showed that center dot OH, O-2(center dot-) and O-1(2) participated in the degradation and O-1(2) was the dominant reactive species. Moreover, the systems have excellent reusability and stability over a wide pH range. This study provided a new strategy for photocatalytic production of O-1(2) to remove the ROX from water.

Automated summary

A new strategy for the photocatalytic removal of ROX from water was developed using resorcinol-formaldehyde resins decorated with FeOOH quantum dots. This system showed efficient degradation of ROX and conversion of arsenic to a stable form. The dominant reactive species were identified as O-1(2), with excellent reusability and stability across a wide pH range.