Degradation of atenolol by CuFe2O4/visible light/oxidant: Effects of electron acceptors, synergistic effects, degradation pathways, and mechanism

[Display omitted] •CuFe2O4 nanoparticle was synthesized by Sol-Gel method.•High degradation of ATL was achieved in order PMS > PDS > H2O2.•The process exhibits the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and PMS oxidation.•SO4●− was the dominant reactive species in CuFe2O4 /VL/PMS. In this work, CuFe2O4 nanoparticle was prepared through sol-gel method and used for removing atenolol (ATL) through photocatalytic process under visible light (VL) radiation in the presence of electron acceptors. The physicochemical properties of the photocatalyst such as XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET, TEM, VSM, FTIR, and UV–Vis DRS techniques as well as effective factors in ATL removal such as electron acceptors (peroxymonosulfate (PMS), peroxydisulfate (PDS), H2O2), solution pH, reaction time, CuFe2O4 loading, ATL concentration, and inorganic anions (i.e., HCO3−, NO3−, SO42−, and H2PO4−) were determined. The results showed the efficiency of ATL removal was as follows: CuFe2O4/VL/PMS > CuFe2O4/VL/PDS > CuFe2O4/VL/H2O2. At the concentration of 10 mg L−1 of ATL, the removal and mineralization rates of ATL were 90% and 68.35%, respectively. Moreover, the reusability test showed the catalyst efficiency decreased by less than 19% after 6 recycles, which indicated good catalyst stability. Among the reactive species (i.e., HO●, SO4●−, and O2•−), SO4●− radical had a dominant role based on the scavenging tests. In addition, the possible ATL degradation pathway was determined by evaluating transformation products. Overall, this study indicated the CuFe2O4/VL/PMS system can be used to remove the pharmaceutical organic matter.