Anchored oxygen-donor coordination to iron for photodegradation of organic pollutants

Rapid Removal of Azophloxine via Catalytic Degradation by a Novel Heterogeneous Catalyst under Visible Light

Azo dyes are the most widely used synthetic dyes in the printing and dyeing process. However, the discharge of untreated azo dyes poses a potential threat to aqueous ecosystems and human health. Herein, we fabricated a novel heterogeneous catalyst: activated-carbon-fiber-supported ferric alginate (FeAlg-ACF). Together with peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and visible light, this photocatalytic oxidation system was used to remove an azo dye—azophloxine. The results indicated that the proposed catalytic oxidation system can remove 100% of azophloxine within 24 min, while under the same system, the removal rates were only 92% and 84% when ferric alginate was replaced with ferric citrate and ferric oxalate, respectively, which showed the superiority of FeAlg-ACF. The degradation of azophloxine is achieved by the active radicals (SO4•− and •OH) released from PMS and persistent free radicals from activated carbon fiber. Moreover, due to ferric alginate’s highly intrinsic photosensitivity, visible radiation can further enhance the ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) processes. After 24 min of treatment, the total organic carbon of the azophloxine solution (50 μmol/L) decreased from 1.82 mg/L to 79.3 μg/L and the concentration of nitrate ions increased from 0.3 mg/L to 8.6 mg/L. That is, up to 93.5% of azophloxine molecules were completely degraded into inorganic compounds. Consequently, potential secondary contamination by intermediate organic products during catalytic degradation was prohibited. The azophloxine removal ratio was kept almost constant after seven cycles, indicating the recyclability and longevity of this system. Furthermore, the azophloxine removal was still promising at high concentrations of Cl−, HCO3−, and CO32−. Therefore, our proposed system is potentially effective at removing dye pollutants from seawater. It provides a feasible method for the development of efficient and environmentally friendly PMS activation technology combined with FeAlg-ACF, which has significant academic and application value.

In-situ green assembly of spherical Mn-based metal-organic composites by ion exchange for efficient electrochemical oxidation of organic pollutant

In this study, we develop a facile ion exchange strategy for in-situ assembly of novel spherical metal-organic composites on a large scale. The functional groups (-NH₂, -COOH and -SO₃H) on chelating and exchange resins had significant effects on improving uniform distribution of metallic sites and metal-support interaction. Without any addition of H₂O₂, Mn-based metal-organic composites realized the recovery of waste metallic ions and exhibited high activity for methylene blue (MB) electro-Fenton degradation (97.8% decoloration and 54.7% TOC removal) within 150 min under low current density (7.53 mA·cm^-2) and 3.0 g·L^-1 catalyst dosage. Analyses of performance on different active sites (Fe^II, Mn^II, Co^II, Ce^III and Cu^II) and supports clearly indicated that synergetic effect of Mn^II and organic supports played crucial roles in electrochemical oxidation. Kinetic rate constant of 0.037 min^-1 and turn over frequency of 0.23 h^-1 were much better than those of inorganic supported catalysts, which were attributed to intramolecular electron transfer greatly accelerating Mn^II/Mn^III autocatalytic cycle. Meanwhile, possible degradation pathway of MB was proposed by analysis of oxidative intermediate products. Benefiting from excellent properties and millimeter-level size structure, metal-organic composites can be applied in wide pH range of 2.0-9.0 and easily separated in the industrial application.

Utilizations of agricultural waste as adsorbent for the removal of contaminants: A review

In recent years, various industrial activities have caused serious pollution to the environment. Due to the low operating costs and high flexibility, adsorption is considered as one of the most effective technologies for pollutant management. Agricultural waste has loose and porous structures, and contains functional groups such as the carboxyl group and hydroxyl group, so it can be invoked as biological adsorption material. Agricultural waste gets the advantages of a wide range of sources, low cost, and renewable. It has a good prospect for the comprehensive utilization of resources when used for environmental pollution control. This article summarized the current research status of agricultural waste in adsorbing pollutants, which pointed out the influencing factors of adsorption, expounded the adsorption mechanism of biological adsorption and introduced the related parameters of adsorption, proposed the application of adsorbents in engineering including adsorption in liquid and gas phases, at the same time it gave the future development prospect of agricultural waste as adsorbent.

Porous TiO2with large surface area is an efficient catalyst carrier for the recovery of wastewater containing an ultrahigh concentration of dye

Preparation of porous TiO₂as an excellent catalyst carrier to load iron and degrade ultrahigh concentration of dye in wastewater over 95% in 30 min.

Strongly enhanced Fenton degradation of organic pollutants by cysteine: An aliphatic amino acid accelerator outweighs hydroquinone analogues

Quinone-hydroquinone analogues have been proven to be efficient promoters of Fenton reactions by accelerating the Fe(III)/Fe(II) redox cycle along with self-destruction. However, so far there is little information on non-quinone-hydroquinone cocatalyst for Fenton reactions. This study found that cysteine, a common aliphatic amino acid, can strongly enhance Fenton degradation of organic pollutants by accelerating Fe(III)/Fe(II) redox cycle, as quinone-hydroquinone analogues do. Further, cysteine is superior to quinone-hydroquinone analogues in catalytic activity, H₂O₂ utilization and atmospheric limits. The cocatalysis mechanism based on the cycle of cysteine/cystine was proposed.

A nanoscale Fe(ii) metal–organic framework with a bipyridinedicarboxylate ligand as a high performance heterogeneous Fenton catalyst

A nanoscale Fe(ii)-bipyridinedicarboxylate based MOF material was used as heterogeneous Fenton catalyst with high activity, stability and H₂O₂ utilization efficiency.

Fe-pyridinedicarboxylate based coordination polymer nanorods as a heterogeneous Fenton catalyst for pollutant degradation

A Fe-pyridinedicaroxylate based nanoscale coordination polymer works as a Fenton catalyst to degrade pollutants by the formation of ˙OH and high-valent iron species.

The relationship of physicochemical properties to the antioxidative activity of free amino acids in Fenton system

Herein we compared antioxidative activities (AA) of 25 free L-amino acids (FAA) against Fenton system-mediated hydroxyl radical (HO(•)) production in aqueous solution, and examined the relation between AA and a set of physicochemical properties. The rank order according to AA was: Trp > norleucine > Phe, Leu > Ile > His >3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, Arg > Val > Lys, Tyr, Pro > hydroxyproline > α-aminobutyric acid > Gln, Thr, Ser > Glu, Ala, Gly, Asn, Asp. Sulfur-containing FAA generated different secondary reactive products, which were discriminated by the means of electron paramagnetic resonance spin-trapping spectroscopy. AA showed a general positive correlation with hydrophobicity. However, when taken separately, uncharged FAA exhibited strong positive correlation of AA with hydrophobicity whereas charged FAA showed negative or no significant correlation depending on the scale applied. A general strong negative correlation was found between AA and polarity. Steric parameters and hydration numbers correlated positively with AA of nonpolar side-chain FAA. In addition, a decrease of temperature which promotes hydrophobic hydration resulted in increased AA. This implies that HO(•)-provoked oxidation of FAA is strongly affected by hydrophobic hydration. Our findings are important for the understanding of oxidation processes in natural and waste waters.

Fe2O3-pillared rectorite as an efficient and stable Fenton-like heterogeneous catalyst for photodegradation of organic contaminants

An efficient Fe(2)O(3)-pillared rectorite (Fe-R) clay was successfully developed as a heterogeneous catalyst for photo-Fenton degradation of organic contaminants. X-ray diffraction analysis and high-resolution transmission electron microscope analysis clearly showed the existence of the Fe(2)O(3) nanoparticles in the Fe-R catalyst. The catalytic activity of the Fe-R catalyst was evaluated by the discoloration and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of an azo-dye rhodamine B (RhB, 100 mg/L) and a typical persistent organic pollutant 4-nitrophenol (4-NP, 50 mg/L) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) under visible light irradiation (lambda > 420 nm). It was found that the discoloration rate of the two contaminants was over 99.3%, and the COD removal rate of the two contaminants was over 87.0%. The Fe-R catalyst showed strong adsorbability for the RhB in the aqueous solution. Moreover, the Fe-R catalyst still showed good stability for the degradation of RhB after five recycles. Zeta potential and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to examine the photoreaction processes. Finally, a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed.

Sono-enhanced degradation of dye pollutants with the use of H2O2 activated by Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles as peroxidase mimetic

Sono-enhanced degradation of a dye pollutant Rhodamine B (RhB) was investigated by using H(2)O(2) as a green oxidant and Fe(3)O(4) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as a peroxidase mimetic. It was found that Fe(3)O(4) MNPs could catalyze the break of H(2)O(2) to remove RhB in a wide pH range from 3.0 to 9.0 and its peroxidase-like activity was significantly enhanced by the ultrasound irradiation. At pH 5.0 and temperature 55 degrees C, the ultrasound-assisted H(2)O(2)-Fe(3)O(4) catalysis removed about 95% of RhB (0.02 mmol L(-1)) in 15 min with a apparent rate constant of 0.15 min(-1) for the degradation of RhB, being 6.5 and 37.6 folds of that in the simple catalytic H(2)O(2)-Fe(3)O(4) system, and the simple ultrasonic US-H(2)O(2) systems, respectively. The beneficial synergistic behavior between Fe(3)O(4) catalysis and ultrasonic was demonstrated to be dependent on Fe(3)O(4) dosage, H(2)O(2) concentration, pH value and temperature. As a tentative explanation, the observed significant synergistic effects was attributed to the positive interaction between cavitation effect accelerating the catalytic breakdown of H(2)O(2) over Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles, and the function of Fe(3)O(4) MNPs providing more nucleation sites for the cavitation inception.

Design of BDD-TiO2 hybrid electrode with P-N function for photoelectroatalytic degradation of organic contaminants

P-N hybrid electrode of boron-doped diamond (BDD) and TiO2 were designed and fabricated via selective deposition of TiO2 onto BDD electrode. This hybrid electrode exhibit high photoelectrocatalytic activities toward degradation of acid orange II (AOII) and 2, 4-dichloropheonl (2,4-DCP) due to the P-N effect and high electrocatalytic and photocatalytic activities of BDD electrode and TiO2 particles. The structures of TiO2 and BDD were confirmed by Raman spectra analysis. Atom force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy showed that the TiO2 deposits consist of adherent nanomicro-sized particles, scattered on the BDD substrate. AOII and 2,4-DCP in a solution can be efficiently degraded at the hybrid electrode in the photoelectrocatalysis (PEC) process. Effect of applied bias potentials and solution pH values on AOII and 2,4-DCP degradation were investigated. In the electro-oxidation process, some intermediates such as phenols were detected and they accumulated with the reaction evolution based on the analysis of UV-vis and GC-MS variation. By contrast, phenols intermediates will be degraded with the reaction evolution in the photoelectrocatalysis process. And, organic aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic acids were detected. Furthermore, different degradation mechanism of AOII and 2,4-DCP in the electro-oxidation, photocatalysis, and photoelectrocatalysis is proposed.

Photoinductive activity of humic acid fractions with the presence of Fe(III): the role of aromaticity and oxygen groups involved in fractions

Relationship between the photoinductive activity and the properties of humic acids (HA) fractions were investigated with and without Fe(III). Three fractions were separated based on the molecular weight (M(w)) and were obtained following the order of M(w): F(A)>F(B)>F(C). Compared to F(A) and F(B), photodegradation of atrazine under simulated sunlight was much faster in solution containing F(C), whose structure was dominated by greater aromaticity, more oxygen groups and fluorophores. The interaction of HA fractions and Fe(III) was studied using fluorescence spectrometry and F(C) had the largest quenching constant. The capacity of electron transfer, estimated from the amount of photoformed Fe(II), was also highest for F(C). Thus, the Fe(III)-F(C) complex was efficient in phototransformation of atrazine in nearly neutral aqueous solutions. These results suggest that the aromaticity and oxygen groups content of HA exert great influence on the binding ability of metals and on the fate of pollutants in natural waters.