Interface engineering-induced perovskite/spinel LaCoO/CoO heterostructured nanocomposites for efficient peroxymonosulfate activation to degrade levofloxacin.

Conventional perovskite oxides (ABO) tend to suffer from their inactive surfaces and limited active sites that reduce their catalytic activity and stability, while interface engineering is a facile modulating technique to boost the catalyst's inherent activity by constructing heterogeneous interfaces. In this study, perovskite/spinel LaCoO/CoO nanocomposites with heterogeneous interfaces were synthesized via sol-gel and in-situ gradient etching methods to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for degrading levofloxacin (LEV). LaCoO on the surface was etched into spinel CoO, and LaCoO/CoO nanocomposites with two crystal structures of perovskite and spinel were successfully formed.