A High-Efficiency CuO/CeO2 Catalyst for Diclofenac Degradation in Fenton-Like System

Jia Zhu; Guangming Zhang; Guang Xian; Nan Zhang; Jinwei Li

doi:10.3389/fchem.2019.00796

A High-Efficiency CuO/CeO₂ Catalyst for Diclofenac Degradation in Fenton-Like System

Front Chem. 2019 Nov 19:7:796. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00796. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Jia Zhu¹, Guangming Zhang², Guang Xian^{2

3}, Nan Zhang², Jinwei Li¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Construction and Environment Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen, China.
² School of Environment & Natural Resource, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Military Installations, Army Logistics University of PLA, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

An efficient Fenton-like catalyst CuO/CeO₂ was synthesized using ultrasonic impregnation and used to remove diclofenac from water. The catalyst was characterized by N₂ adsorption-desorption, SEM-EDS, XRD, HRTEM, Raman, and XPS analyses. Results showed that CuO/CeO₂ possessed large surface area, high porosity, and fine elements dispersion. Cu was loaded in CeO₂, which increased the oxygen vacancies. The exposed crystal face of CeO₂ (200) was beneficial to the catalytic activity. The diclofenac removal experiment showed that there was a synergistic effect between CuO and CeO₂, which might be caused by more oxygen vacancies generation and electronic interactions between Cu and Ce species. The experimental conditions were optimized, including pH, catalyst and H₂O₂ dosages, and 86.62% diclofenac removal was achieved. Diclofenac oxidation by ·OH and adsorbed oxygen species was the main mechanism for its removal in this Fenton-like system.

Keywords: CuO/CeO2; Fenton-like system; OH; oxygen vacancies; ultrasonic impregnation.