Subnano-Fe (Co, Ni) clusters anchored on halloysite nanotubes: an efficient Fenton-like catalyst for the degradation of tetracycline

Iron-based catalysts are environmentally friendly, and iron minerals are abundant in the earth's crust, with great potential advantages for PMS-based advanced oxidation process applications. However, homogeneous Fe²⁺/PMS systems suffer from side reactions and are challenging to reuse. Therefore, developing catalysts with improved stability and activity is a long-term goal for practical Fe-based catalyst applications. In this study, we prepared Fe-HNTs nanoreactors by encapsulating a nitrogen-doped carbon layer with one-dimensional halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) using the molten salt-assisted method. Subsequently, Fe (Co, Ni) nanoclusters were anchored onto the nitrogen-doped carbon layer at a relatively low temperature (550℃), resulting in stable and uniform distribution of metal nanoclusters on the surface of HNTs carriers in the form of Fe-N_x coordination. The results showed that the dissolution of the molten salt and leaching of post-treated metal oxides generated numerous mesopores within the Fe-HNTs nanoreactor, leading to a specific surface area more than 10 times that of HNTs. This enhanced mass transfer capability facilitates rapid pollutant removal while exposing more active sites. Remarkably, Fe-HNTs adsorbed up to 97% of tetracycline within 60 min. In the Fe-HNTs/PMS system, the predominant reactive oxygen species has been shown to be ¹O₂, and the added tetracycline was degraded by more than 98% within 5 min. The removal of tetracycline was maintained above 96% in the presence of interfering factors such as wide pH (3–11) and inorganic anions (5 mM Cl⁻, HCO₃⁻, NO₃⁻, and SO₄²⁻). The investigated mechanism suggests that efficient degradation and interference resistance of the Fe-HNTs/PMS system is attributed to the synergistic effect between the rapid adsorption of porous structure and the non-radical (¹O₂)-dominated degradation pathway.