Fe/S doped granular activated carbon as a highly active heterogeneous persulfate catalyst toward the degradation of Orange G and diethyl phthalate

Mengjie Pu; Yongwen Ma; Jinquan Wan; Yan Wang; Mingzhi Huang; Yangmei Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2013.12.034

Fe/S doped granular activated carbon as a highly active heterogeneous persulfate catalyst toward the degradation of Orange G and diethyl phthalate

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2014 Mar 15:418:330-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.12.034. Epub 2013 Dec 20.

Authors

Mengjie Pu¹, Yongwen Ma¹, Jinquan Wan², Yan Wang¹, Mingzhi Huang¹, Yangmei Chen³

Affiliations

¹ College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; The Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
² College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: ppjqwan@scut.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.

PMID: 24461853
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.12.034

Abstract

Fe/S doped granular activated carbon (Fe/SGAC) was synthesized with ferric nitrate, Na2S2O3 and (NH4)2S2O8 via an impregnation-precipitation, reduction-oxidation combining with aqueous-phase synthesis method treatment. Surface density of functional groups, surface area changes as well as the chemical state inside Fe/SGAC catalyst were studied by Boehm titration, N2 adsorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The reactivity of the catalysts was tested by degrading Orange G (OG) and diethyl phthalate (DEP). The Fe/SGAC catalysts could significantly enhance the removal rate of OG as compared to persulfate alone and PS/GAC. And the catalytic capacity was also enhanced by S doping. But the degradation of DEP under the similar condition was inhibited by adsorption process because of the different hydrophobicities of OG and DEP molecule. Fe2O3/FeOOH (Fe(3+)) (represents ferrihydrite) together with FeO/Fe3O4 (Fe(2+)) and Fe2O3-satellite, which provide the new active site for persulfate catalyst was found to be the major components of iron element in Fe/SGAC catalyst; the existence of FeS2(S(-)) for sulfur element verified the assumption that the doped S element promoted the electron transfer between the persulfate species and iron oxide at the interface. COD removal experiment further confirmed that mostly contaminant removal was owed to the Fe/SGAC catalytic persulfate oxidation process.

Keywords: Diethyl phthalate; Fe/SGAC; Iron oxide; Orange G; Persulfate catalytic oxidation.