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Influencing mechanisms of tartaric acid on adsorption and degradation of tetracycline on goethite: insight from solid and liquid aspects

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Abstract

The interactions between organic pollutants and iron minerals play an important role in their environmental fate. In this study, the effects of low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs) on the adsorption and degradation of tetracycline (TC) on goethite were investigated. Tartaric acid (TA) was taken as the representative of LMWOAs to study the influencing mechanism through batch experiments and microscale characterization. In addition, the properties of TC-TA clusters under different pHs were determined by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The results showed that all five LMWOAs inhibited TC adsorption and degradation. The preferential adsorption of TA on goethite changed TC adsorption from inner spherical to outer spherical complexation and mainly inhibited TC adsorption and degradation of the singly coordinated hydroxyl group. TC degradation rate decreased from 0.0287 to 0 h−1 in the first stage. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that TA could influence the interactions of amide groups, C = O on the A-ring, and dimethylamino group of TC with goethite, and the formation of ≡Fe(II) was inhibited. In addition to competing for the effective sites, the effects of complexation between TA and TC in solution should be considered. According to DFT calculations, hydrogen bonds could be formed between the carboxyl group of TA and the H atom of TC at different pH. These findings can provide evidence for estimating the contribution of adsorption and degradation to TC removal by iron oxides with the coexistence of LMWOAs in a soil–water environment.

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Acknowledgements

This research was performed in China University of Geosciences (Beijing). The authors would like to appreciate all the support received from the institution. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 41877202) and Guangxi key R & D program support (assignment no. Guike AB22080070).

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  1. School of Water Resources and Environment, MOE Key Laboratory of Groundwater Circulation and Environmental Evolution, and Beijing Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Yujia Li & Erping Bi

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  1. Yujia Li
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  2. Erping Bi
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YL: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, and visualization; EB: supervision, project administration, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Erping Bi.

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Highlights

• The affinity of tartaric acid (TA) to goethite is higher than that of tetracycline (TC).

• Preferential TA adsorption changes TC adsorption mode on goethite.

• TA mainly inhibits TC degradation on singly coordinated hydroxyls of goethite.

• The complexation between TA and TC in solution inhibits TC behaviors.

• The main interaction between TC and TA is the hydrogen bond.

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Li, Y., Bi, E. Influencing mechanisms of tartaric acid on adsorption and degradation of tetracycline on goethite: insight from solid and liquid aspects. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 6411–6424 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31465-w

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