Heterogeneous Fenton-assisted antibiotic removal from wastewater: Effect of FeWO4 nanomaterial morphology across four Fenton processes

The growing incidence of antibiotics in water presents considerable environmental and health challenges, including antibiotic resistance and genotoxicity. This research focuses on synthesizing FeWO₄ nanomaterials in three distinct morphologies- nanoparticles (NPs), nanorods (NRs), and nanofibers (NFs) via a facile hydrothermal process. These nanomaterials were evaluated as heterogeneous catalysts in four different Fenton-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs): conventional Fenton (CF), photo-Fenton (PF), sono-Fenton (SF), and sono-photo-Fenton (SPF). The performance of each morphological structure of FeWO₄ nanomaterials was systematically assessed for the degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP), a common antibiotic pollutant found in wastewater. The synthesized nanomaterials were characterized using UV–Vis DRS, FESEM, XRD, EIS, and CV. The physicochemical analysis confirmed the differences in optical and catalytic properties of synthesized FeWO₄ nanomaterials. Among the four Fenton processes, photo-Fenton and sono-photo-Fenton processes demonstrated higher CIP degradation efficiency compared to conventional Fenton and sono-Fenton processes. However, the SPF process demonstrated high efficiency in removing nearly 99% of ciprofloxacin (CIP) from aqueous solution, using a low dose of FeWO₄ NPs (100 mg/L) and H₂O₂ (2.0 mM) over a 40-minute treatment period at neutral pH. The nanoparticle form of FeWO₄ exhibited outstanding performance compared to the other two morphologies. The groundbreaking discovery emphasizes the immense potential of FeWO₄ as versatile and efficient nanomaterials in Fenton-based AOP processes for mitigating antibiotics in aquatic environments.