Acetaminophen can increase the risk of arsenic-mediated hepatic oxidative damage; therefore, the decontamination of water polluted with coexisting acetaminophen and arsenic gives rise to new challenges for the purification of drinking water. In this work, a three-metal layered double hydroxide, namely, Cu-Zn-Fe-LDH, was synthesized and applied as a heterogeneous Fenton-like oxidation catalyst and adsorbent to simultaneously remove acetaminophen (Paracetamol, PR) and arsenic. The results showed that the degradation of acetaminophen was accelerated with decreasing pH or increasing H2O2 concentrations. Under the conditions of a catalyst dosage of 0.5 g·L(-1) and a H2O2 concentration of 30 mmol·L(-1), the acetaminophen in a water sample was completely degraded within 24 h by a Fenton-like reaction. The synthesized Cu-Zn-Fe-LDH also exhibited a high efficiency for arsenate removal from aqueous solutions, with a calculated maximum adsorption capacity of 126.13 mg·g(-1). In the presence of hydrogen peroxide, the more toxic arsenite can be gradually oxidized into arsenate and adsorbed at the same time by Cu-Zn-Fe-LDH. For simulated water samples with coexisting arsenic and acetaminophen pollutants, after treatment with Cu-Zn-Fe-LDH and H2O2, the residual arsenic concentration in water was less than 10 μg·L(-1), and acetaminophen was not detected in the solution. These results indicate that the obtained Cu-Zn-Fe-LDH is an efficient material for the decontamination of combined acetaminophen and arsenic pollution.
Keywords: acetaminophen; adsorption; arsenic; heterogeneous catalysis; layered double hydroxides.