Cao, JingxuanJingxuanCaoHuang, YuqingYuqingHuangLin, ShaohuaShaohuaLinCHUNG-YU GUANWu, HaixiaHaixiaWu2026-02-032026-02-032026-01https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105023899439?inwardhttps://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/735759Article number 109197In response to the challenges of ferrocene (Fc) agglomeration and difficult recovery in the degradation of tetracycline (TC) in water using non-thermal plasma (NTP) coupled with Fc, this study successfully prepared a ferrocene-chitosan (Fc-CS) composite catalyst to enhance TC degradation by NTP. The effects of polymerization temperature, ferrocene carboxaldehyde (Fc-CHO)/CS mass ratio, catalyst dosage, discharge voltage and frequency, initial pH, and inorganic anions on the degradation efficiency were systematically investigated. The results showed that under optimized conditions (synthesis temperature of 100 °C, m(Fc-CHO):m(CS) = 3:4), the Fc-CS/NTP system exhibited excellent degradation performance towards TC. Repeatability tests and post-reaction characterization, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), confirmed the high structural stability and good reusability of the Fc-CS catalyst. Mechanistic studies revealed that ·OH, O2·−, and 1O2 were the key active species in the degradation process; liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis indicated that the degradation pathway of TC involved ring-opening, demethylation, and C-N bond cleavage. This Fc-CS/NTP synergistic system provides a novel, efficient, stable, and potentially applicable method for antibiotic wastewater treatment.falseCatalysisChitosan composite ferroceneDegradationNon-thermal plasmaTetracyclinejournal article10.1016/j.jwpe.2025.1091972-s2.0-105023899439