Electrospun cobalt ferrite nanofiber as a magnetic and effective heterogeneous catalyst for activating peroxymonosulfate to degrade sulfosalicylic acid.

• CoFe 2 O 4 nanofiber consists of CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles which is configured to fibers. • CoFe 2 O 4 nanofiber shows a much higher catalytic activity for activating PMS. • The E a of sulfosalicylic acid degradation by CoFe 2 O 4 -activated PMS is much lower. • Sulfosalicylic acid degradation mechanism and pathway are both investigated. While Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) are frequently employed for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade organic contaminants, Co 3 O 4 NPs are easily aggregated and difficult to recover from water; thus cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4) has been considered as a magnetically-controllable alternative to Co 3 O 4. Moreover, CoFe 2 O 4 can be fabricated into high-aspect-ratio nanofibrous structures to configure NPs into fibrous morphologies for preventing aggregation but exhibiting superior textural properties with. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop such a CoFe 2 O 4 nanofiber (CFNF) through the electrospinning technique as a magnetic catalyst for activating PMS to degrade SUA. The resultant CFNF consists of CoFe 2 O 4 NPs configured to the fibrous structure in CFNF for enabling CFNF to possess advantageous morphology, and textural properties. Thus, CFNF exhibits a higher catalytic activity for activating PMS to degrade SUA than the typical commercial Co 3 O 4 NP as SUA was completely eliminated by CFNF-activated PMS in 45 min with k obs = 0.08 min−1, whereas Co 3 O 4 NP-activated PMS merely eliminated ~20% of SUA. The E a of SUA degradation by CFNF-activated PMS was 24.6 kJ/mol, which is significantly lower than reported E a values by other catalysts, and CFNF could be reused 5 times without loss of catalytic activities. These features certifies that CFNF is a promising magnetic catalyst for activating PMS to degrade emerging contaminants. The fabrication of CFNF demonstrated here also provides a facile protocol to fabricate fibrous structures of CoFe 2 O 4 for environmental catalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]