Reorganizing bauxite residue to fabricate a Fe-based hybridized composite for enhanced photo-Fenton to mineralize antibiotics

In this work, bauxite residues denoted as red mud (RM) are explored to fabricate Fe-based hybridized photo-catalyst through a facile separation purification and hydrothermal route for enhanced photo-Fenton to efficiently mineralize antibiotics under visible light illumination. The RM is firstly purified to remove the impurities through acid leaching and separation route for obtaining acidized red mud (ARM). Subsequently, cadmium sulfide is introduced to couple with the ARM to construct a hybridized photocatalyst by saturated adsorbing Cd ions. Consequently, the hybridized system exhibits significantly enhanced mineralization efficiency for tetra-cycline induced by a photo-Fenton path, which is 1.5 and 3.1 times higher than that of the ARM and bare CdS, respectively. Combined with the structural and surface chemical properties, the photo-Fenton mechanism behind the improved performance are proposed and discussed. This work provides a new strategy for reutilizing bauxite residues and fabricating high valuable products in the future.

Automated summary

In this study, a Fe-based hybridized photocatalyst was synthesized using bauxite residues. The photocatalyst efficiently mineralized antibiotics under visible light illumination, demonstrating high mineralization efficiency.