Peroxydisulfate activation by 2D MOF-derived Ni/Fe3O4 nanoparticles decorated in 3D graphene oxide network

[Display omitted] •Low catalyst/pollutant dosage ratio (0.79) for efficient removal of p-Chloroaniline.•High catalytic activity in solution pH from 3 to 9.•Good stability and excellent tolerance to inorganic anions.•Singlet oxygen (1O2) is the predominant active species. Metal organic framework (MOF)-derived materials normally have three-dimensional (3D) structure, while little attention has been paid to two-dimensional (2D) MOF-derived materials with high catalytic activity. Nevertheless, the underlying agglomeration and metal leaching issues of 2D MOF-derived catalysts hinder their real applications. In this work, we report a bimetallic nanocomposite (Ni-Fe-C-600-acid/GO) derived from 2D Ni-Fe-MOF and graphene oxide (GO) network. Employing Ni(0) and Fe3O4 as active site, the Ni-Fe-C-600-acid/GO shows high efficiency in peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation for the removal of p-chloroaniline (PCA), and the catalyst/PCA dosage ratio (0.8) is substantially lower than those of the previous studies (3.9–156.9). The prepared catalysts demonstrate high catalytic activity over a wide pH range of 3–9 and maintain high efficiency after five cycles with good tolerance to inorganic anions. The singlet oxygen is identified as the predominant active species and relatively weak contributions from sulfate free radicals and hydroxyl radicals are confirmed. This catalysis system presents new insights in 2D MOF-derived catalysts in advanced oxidation processes.