Performance and degradation pathway of florfenicol antibiotic by nitrogen-doped biochar supported zero-valent iron and zero-valent copper: A combined experimental and DFT study

Electron-rich CuOx@Al2O3 Catalyst for Sustainable O2 Activation in Fenton-Like Reactions

Molecular oxygen (O2) activation is pivotal in advancing green chemistry and catalysis, addressing processes such as energy conversion and environmental remediation. However, the inherent inertness of the O2 necessitates highly efficient catalysts. In this study, an electron-rich CuOx@Al2O3 catalyst with high metal loading and dispersion was synthesized via the ion-exchange inverse-loading method. The novel CuOx@Al2O3 significantly enhanced O2 activation due to the accelerated Cu0 → Cu+ → Cu2+ redox cycle, achieving the 85% chlorobenzene removal in Fenton-like reaction. This is substantially higher than the chlorobenzene removal observed with conventional CuOx/Al2O3 (45%). Experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that Cu-Cu sites over CuOx@Al2O3 greatly facilitated charge transfer, weakened O-O bonds, and promoted synergistic O2 and H2O2 activation to produce •OH and O2•-, thereby enhancing oxidants utilization efficiency. This study provides a sustainable pathway for pollutant degradation by achieving O2 activation and offers valuable insights for designing advanced Cu-based catalysts in green oxidation processes and environmental remediation.

B-Modified Pd Cathodes for the Efficient Detoxification of Halogenated Antibiotics: Enhancing C-F Bond Breakage beyond Hydrodefluorination

Halogenated antibiotics pose a great threat to aqueous environments because of their persistent biotoxicity from carbon-halogen bonds. Electrochemical reduction (ER) is an efficient technology for dehalogenation, but it still suffers from limited efficiencies in breaking C-F bonds. Herein, we present a strategy to enhance C-F cleavage and promote detoxification by loading benchmark palladium cathodes onto boron-doped carbon. This improves the florfenicol (FLO) degradation rate constant and defluorination efficiency by 1.24 and 1.05 times, respectively, and improves the defluorination of various fluorinated compounds. The cathode with optimal B content shows superior mass activity for FLO degradation (1.11 mmol g-1 Pd min-1), which is 5.9 times that of commercial Pd/C and is among the best-reported cathodes. Notably, the exclusive formation of the direct defluorination product (i.e., FLO-F) on Pd/B-C implies a higher intrinsic C-F cleavage ability endowed by B doping. As revealed by experiments and theoretical calculations, boron modification enhances palladium binding and induces stronger strain effects and higher electron density for surface palladium atoms, which boosts H* generation and reduces the energy barrier for C-F cleavage. This study provides an effective cathode design strategy to enhance C-F activation, which may broadly benefit the destruction and detoxification of fluorinated organics that are limited by sluggish C-F cleavage kinetics.

Customizable Three-Dimensional Printed Zerovalent Iron: An Efficient and Reusable Fenton-like Reagent for Florfenicol Degradation

Zerovalent iron (Fe0)-based Fenton-like technology has great potential for treating recalcitrant organic pollutants (ROPs) in wastewater. However, rapidly and precisely manufacturing Fe0-based materials with the desired geometries is challenging. Herein, novel three-dimensional printed Fe0 (3DP-Fe0) and bimetallic 3DP-Ni/Fe0 were customized by 3D printing for efficient Fenton-like degradation of florfenicol (FLO), a typical antibiotic in wastewater. 3DP-Ni/Fe0 with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) exhibited superior reactivity toward FLO than 3DP-Fe0, generating hydroxyl radicals (·OH) and atomic hydrogen to achieve >90% dehalogenation and >70% total organic carbon removal within 10 min. The resulting degradation intermediates possessed lower antibacterial activity than FLO and did not cause resistance gene proliferation in activated sludge. The Fenton-like activity of 3DP-Ni/Fe0 was similar across different shapes but increased with increasing porosity and size. Compared with powdered Ni/Fe0, 3DP-Ni/Fe0 exhibited faster electron transfer during Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycling, which increased the utilization efficiency of dissolved Fe2+ and H2O2 for ·OH production. Moreover, 3DP-Ni/Fe0 could be reused >150 times, 5-fold more than powdered Ni/Fe0, owing to its lower metal ion release and Fe0 depletion. 3DP-Ni/Fe0 with H2O2 can also efficiently remove chemical oxygen demand from real wastewater and other ROPs (e.g., acetaminophen, carbamazepine, thiamphenicol, and tetrabromobisphenol A).

Microfabrication of engineered Lactococcus lactis biocarriers with genetically programmed immunorecognition probes for sensitive lateral flow immunoassay of antibiotic in milk and lake water

Micro/nanomaterials display considerable potential for increasing the sensitivity of lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) by acting as 3D carriers for both antibodies and signals. The key to achieving high detection sensitivity depends on the probe's orientation on the material surface and its multivalent biomolecular interactions with targets. Here, we engineer Lactococcus lactis as the bacterial microcarrier (BMC) for a multivalent immunorecognition probe that was genetically programmed to display multifunctional components including a phage-screened single-chain variable fragment (scFv), an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP), and a C-terminal peptidoglycan-binding domain (AcmA) anchored on BMC through the cell wall peptidoglycan. The innovative design of this biocarrier system, which incorporates a lab-on-a-chip microfluidic device, allows for the rapid and non-destructive self-assembly of the multivalent scFv-eGFP-AcmA@BMC probe, in which the 3D structure of BMC with a large peptidoglycan surface area facilitates the precisely orientated attachment and immobilization of scFv-eGFP-AcmA. This leads to a remarkable fluorescence aggregation amplification effect in LFIA, outperforming a monovalent 2D scFv-eGFP-AcmA probe for florfenicol detection. By designing a portable sensing device, we achieved an exceptionally low detection limit of 0.28 pg/mL and 0.21 pg/mL for florfenicol in lake water and milk sample, respectively. The successful microfabrication of this biocarrier holds potential to inspire innovative biohybrid designs for environment and food safety biosensing applications.

Nanoscale zero-valent iron alleviate antibiotic resistance risk during managed aquifer recharge (MAR) by regulating denitrifying bacterial network

The frequent occurrence of antibiotics in reclaimed water is concerning, in the case of managed aquifer recharge (MAR), it inevitably hinders further water purification and accelerates the evolutionary resistance in indigenous bacteria. In this study, we constructed two column reactors and nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) amendment was applied for its effects on water quality variation, microbial community succession, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) dissemination, deciphered the underlying mechanism of resistance risk reduction. Results showed that nZVI was oxidized to iron oxides in the sediment column, and total effluent iron concentration was within permissible limits. nZVI enhanced NO3--N removal by 15.5% through enriching denitrifying bacteria and genes, whereas made no effects on oxacillin (OXA) removal. In addition, nZVI exhibited a pivotal impact on ARGs and plasmids decreasing. Network analysis elucidated that the diversity and richness of ARG host declined with nZVI amendment. Denitrifying bacteria play a key role in suppressing horizontal gene transfer (HGT). The underlying mechanisms of inhibited HGT included the downregulated SOS response, the inhibited Type-Ⅳ secretion system and the weakened driving force. This study afforded vital insights into ARG spread control, providing a reference for future applications of nZVI in MAR.