Clay material is used as a catalyst to degrade an organic pollutant. This study focused on the O-cresol oxidative degradation in aqueous solution by adding H2 O2 and Mont-Na. The catalytic tests showed a high catalytic activity of Mont-Na, which made it possible to achieve more than 84.6% conversion after 90 min of reaction time at 55°C in 23.2 mM H2 O2 . The pH value was found to be negatively correlated with the degradation rate of O-cresol. UV-Vis spectrophotometry revealed that the increase of degradation rate at low pH is related to the formation of 2-methylbenzoquinone as intermediate product. In addition, the content of iron in Mont-Na decreased after the catalytic test, bringing further evidence about the O-cresol catalytic oxidation. The mineralization of O-cresol is also confirmed by the different methods of characterization of Mont-Na after the catalytic oxidation test. The effect of the O-cresol oxidation catalyzed by natural clay is significant. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Algerian Montmorillonite-Na is used as a catalyst to degrade an organic pollutant: O-cresol. It shows a great potential for catalyst properties in the presence of the oxidizing reagent H2 O2 . It proved to be an effective means for the degradation of O-cresol contained in wastewaters.
Keywords: O-cresol; catalytic oxidation; hydrogen peroxide; sodium clay; wastewater.
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