Enhanced Fenton-like removal of nitrobenzene via internal microelectrolysis in nano zerovalent iron/activated carbon composite

Water Sci Technol. 2016;73(1):153-60. doi: 10.2166/wst.2015.467.

Abstract

The efficiency of Fenton-like catalysis using nano zerovalent iron (nZVI) is limited by nZVI aggregation and activity loss due to inactive ferric oxide forming on the nZVI surface, which hinders electron transfer. A novel iron-carbon composite catalyst consisting of nZVI and granular activated carbon (GAC), which can undergo internal iron-carbon microelectrolysis spontaneously, was successfully fabricated by the adsorption-reduction method. The catalyst efficiency was evaluated in nitrobenzene (NB) removal via the Fenton-like process (H2O2-nZVI/GAC). The results showed that nZVI/GAC composite was good for dispersing nZVI on the surface of GAC, which permitted much better removal efficiency (93.0%) than nZVI (31.0%) or GAC (20.0%) alone. Moreover, iron leaching decreased from 1.28 to 0.58 mg/L after reaction of 240 min and the oxidation kinetic of the Fenton-like reaction can be described well by the second-order reaction kinetic model (R2=0.988). The composite catalyst showed sustainable catalytic ability and GAC performed as a medium for electron transfer in internal iron-carbon microelectrolysis to promote Fe2+ regeneration and Fe3+/Fe2+ cycles. Therefore, this study represents an important method to design a low cost and high efficiency Fenton-like catalyst in practical application.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adsorption
  • Catalysis
  • Charcoal / chemistry*
  • Ferric Compounds
  • Hydrogen Peroxide / chemistry*
  • Iron / chemistry*
  • Kinetics
  • Nitrobenzenes / isolation & purification*
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / isolation & purification*

Substances

  • Ferric Compounds
  • Nitrobenzenes
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • Charcoal
  • ferric oxide
  • Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Iron
  • nitrobenzene