Heterogeneous Catalytic Ozonation of Phenol by a Novel Binary Catalyst of Fe-Ni/MAC

Abstract

Iron-nickel supported on modified active carbon (Fe-Ni/MAC) was prepared and characterized by XRD, SEM, XPS and EDS, followed by evaluating the practicability of Fe-Ni/MAC in treating real wastewater with a high concentration of phenol. Results showed that the optimal conditions for catalytic ozonation obtained by response surface methodology (RSM) were catalyst 10 g/L, ozone 68 mg/L, pH 9 and reaction time 90 min. Fe-Ni alloy and NiFe2O4 were demonstrated to be the dominant active species involved in catalytic reaction. The Fe-Ni/MAC catalyst can be reused six times with a satisfactory performance and little leaching of metal ions. Although some radicals like ·OH and ·O2− functioned well, singlet oxygen (1O2) was regarded as the most important radical in the Fe-Ni/MAC process. Most noticeably, the fluorescence excitation emission matrices (EEMs) certified that as much as 1243 mg/L phenol in the real wastewater was completely degraded, which made Fe-Ni/MAC a fairly practical catalyst.