Efficient activation of peracetic acid by cobalt modified nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for drugs degradation: Performance and mechanism insight

Peracetic acid (PAA) has garnered significant attention as a novel disinfectant owing to its remarkable oxidative capacity and minimal potential to generate byproducts. In this study, we prepared a novel catalyst, denoted as cobalt modified nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (Co@N-CNTs), and evaluated it for PAA activation . Modification with cobalt nanoparticles (∼4.8 nm) changed the morphology and structure of the carbon nanotubes , and greatly improved their ability to activate PAA. Co@N-CNTs/PAA catalytic system shows outstanding catalytic degradation ability of antiviral drugs . Under neutral conditions, with a dosage of 0.05 g/L [email protected] and 0.25 mM PAA, the removal efficiency of acyclovir (ACV) reached 98.3% within a mere 10 min. The primary reactive species responsible for effective pollutant degradation were identified as acetylperoxyl radicals (CH 3 C(O)OO•) and acetyloxyl radicals (CH 3 C(O)O•). In addition, density functional theory (DFT) proved that Co nanoparticles , as the main catalytic sites, were more likely to adsorb PAA and transfer more electrons than N-doped graphene. This study explored the feasibility of PAA degradation of antiviral drugs in sewage, and provided new insights for the application of heterogeneous catalytic PAA in environmental remediation.