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

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.