Heterogeneous Fenton degradation characteristics and Its Reaction Kinetics of Tetracycline in aqueous solution Catalysed by Goethite

The oxidative decomposition character and its degradation kinetic model of Tetracycline (TC) were investigated using goethite/H2O2 as the heterogeneous Fenton reagent, with emphasis on the evaluation of the several Fenton-like oxidation system parameters, including initial solution pH, concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and α-FeOOH, initial concentration of TC, and reaction temperature. The results showed that a 97.2% decomposition efficiency for TC was obtained within 180 min under optimum conditions. Moreover, the addition of tertiary butyl alcohol (used as the ?OH quencher) to the reaction system can cause obviously the decrease of TC decomposition rate, it suggested that the TC decomposition was dominated by ?OH. In addition, goethite surfaces catalysed a heterogeneous Fenton-like reaction responsible for the TC decomposition following pseudo-first order kinetics (R2 >0.97), and their apparent activation energy (Ea) measured was a relatively low (31.86 kJ?mol-1), which implied that the ease of the Fenton decomposition reaction occurred generally and thus it is convenient for the actual application.