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The persistence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) such as norfloxacin (NFX) poses a serious threat to the water environment, and the development of efficient and cost-effective advanced oxidation catalysts is an important step toward resolving this issue. Herein, Fe and N co-doped graphene (FeNGO) was synthesized from graphene oxide (GO), urea, and iron salt via simple impregnation pyrolysis, and applied for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade NFX. FeNGO possessed a two-dimensional porous sheet structure and was rich in defects, nitrogen species, and active sites. Compared with the control catalyst doped with N or Fe alone, FeNGO/PMS system showed the best degradation performance with 97.7% removal of NFX after 30 min, the rate constant was 7.1 and 1.7 times than that for NGO and FeGO, respectively. Fe 3 N was the main active site of FeNGO, and it is confirmed that singlet oxygen (1O 2) and superoxide radical (O 2 •-) were the primary oxidation active species (ROS) during NFX degradation. The formation of 1O 2 came from the transformation of O 2 •- and PMS decomposition. FeNGO showed strong pH adaptability, and also exhibited stale degradation performance in saliferous water matrices. It is believed that this work will offer theoretical and practical guidance for PMS activation by non-radical pathways. [Display omitted] • The FeNGO was prepared and the Fe 3 N were the main active sites. • The FeNGO exhibited good pH flexibility and had low Fe leaching. • O 2.•- and 1O 2 were primary cause of norfloxacin degradation. • Possible degradation pathway of norfloxacin was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene oxide (GO) is one of the promising two-dimensional nanomaterials for the development of fluorescent aptasensors. Its limitations are related to the inevitable negative effect of GO on the fluorescence. Here this challenge was explored and solved by ssDNA adsorption on GO and centrifugal separation of GO from the ensembled solution. On this basis, a fluorescent aptasensor was constructed for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), in which GO assisted the separation of free aptamers to achieve cDNA-induced structure-switching from SEA/aptamer complex to dsDNA, and GO was added again to separate free cDNA and reduce the background signal. SYBR Green I was inserted into dsDNA as the fluorescent signal to achieve the quantitative analysis. It displayed a wide linear range (1–8000 ng/mL), low detection limit (0.899 ng/mL), and satisfactory application in milk and milk powder. Notably, the method was low-cost, general, and instructive for other two-dimensional nanomaterials. [Display omitted] • A label-free, low-background fluorescent aptasensor for staphylococcal enterotoxin A. • Graphene oxide-assisted ssDNA separation to reduce the background and interference. • The cDNA-induced structure-switching formed dsDNA and amplified the signal. • The method was low-cost, general, and instructive for two-dimensional nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]