AUTHOR=Wang Chuan , Jiang Rui , Yang Jingxin , Wang Pingshan 

TITLE=Enhanced Heterogeneous Fenton Degradation of Organic Pollutants by CRC/Fe3O4 Catalyst at Neutral pH

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2022.892424

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2022.892424

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=Fe3O4-based heterogeneous Fenton catalysts have been widely employed for degrading organic pollutants, however it faces a great challenge to highly efficient and recyclable application in wastewater treatment. In this work, a carboxylate-rich carbon (CRC)-modified Fe3O4 magnetic particles are prepared by sol-gel self-combustion method, where CRC from the carbonization of sodium gluconate. The CRC@Fe3O4 catalyst exhibits high heterogeneous Fenton degradation performance. The complete 10 mg L–1methylene blue (MB) removal is achieved in 180 min under conditions of 10 mM H2O2 and 1.00 g L–1 CRC@Fe3O4 at neutral pH. After five cycles, the structure and morphology of CRC@Fe3O4 composites remained unchanged and the catalytic activity also remained unaltered. Moreover, phenol, benzoic acid (BA), sulfamethazine (SMT) and tetracycline (TC) are also degraded in the heterogeneous Fenton reaction using CRC@Fe3O4 as catalyst. Strong coordinating ability of –COOH/ –COO– functionalities of CRC form strong bonds with Fe(II/III) ions on surfaces of Fe3O4 particles, which is conducive towards adsorption of organic matter on the surface of catalyst and promotes the occurrence of heterogeneous Fenton reactions. It was found that CRC@Fe3O4 had higher removal rates for the adsorptive exclusions of pollutants, such as TC and MB, whereas lower removal rates for phenol, BA, and SMT. This work brings potential insights to develop a novel adsorption-enhanced heterogeneous Fenton reaction for wastewater treatment.