Selective photodegradation of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole by a novel imprinted CoFe2O4/MWCNTs photocatalyst

A novel imprinted CoFe2O4/MWCNTs photocatalyst was prepared through the combination of a hydrothermal method and suspension polymerization based on 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) as the molecular template, pyrrole as the imprinted functional monomer and conductive polymerizable monomer, and CoFe2O4/MWCNTs as the matrix material. The results indicated that the surface imprinted layer was successfully coated on the surface of CoFe2O4/MWCNTs and polypyrrole (PPy) was formed and existed in the surface imprinted layer, the magnetic saturation value of the novel imprinted CoFe2O4/MWCNTs photocatalyst was 19 emu g−1. Moreover, compared with other photocatalysts, the novel imprinted CoFe2O4/MWCNTs photocatalyst not only had a high photocatalytic efficiency (57.09%), but also possessed a strong ability for selective recognition and photodegradation of MBT (the coefficients of selectivity of the novel imprinted CoFe2O4/MWCNTs photocatalyst relative to CoFe2O4/MWCNTs and the non-imprinted CoFe2O4/MWCNTs photocatalyst was 3.37 and 3.28, respectively). In addition, in the process of the photodegradation reaction, h+ and ˙OH were the main oxidative species, ˙O2− played a very small role.