Colloidal activated carbon as a highly efficient bifunctional catalyst for phenol degradation

Ardie Septian; Alam Venugopal Narendra Kumar; Annamalai Sivasankar; Jiyeon Choi; Inseong Hwang; Won Sik Shin

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125474

Colloidal activated carbon as a highly efficient bifunctional catalyst for phenol degradation

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Jul 15:414:125474. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125474. Epub 2021 Feb 20.

Authors

Ardie Septian¹, Alam Venugopal Narendra Kumar¹, Annamalai Sivasankar¹, Jiyeon Choi¹, Inseong Hwang², Won Sik Shin³

Affiliations

¹ School of Architecture, Civil, Environmental, and Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea.
³ School of Architecture, Civil, Environmental, and Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: wshin@knu.ac.kr.

PMID: 33647616
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125474

Abstract

A preparation of colloidal activated carbon (CAC) for phenol remediation from groundwater was introduced. The CAC prepared by a simple pulverization technique was an excellent metal-free catalyst for persulfate (PS) activation due to high contact surface area. The removal efficiency of phenol in the PS/CAC system (~100%) was higher than that in the PS/activated carbon (AC) system (90.1%) and was superior to the conventional PS/Fe²⁺ system (27.9%) within 30 min. The phenol removal reaction occurred both in bulk solution and at the surface of the CAC, as confirmed by Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) kinetic model fitting, FT-IR, and electron spin resonance (ESR) analyses. The downsizing of particle size from AC to CAC played a critical role in the radical oxidation mechanism by leading to the formation of predominant superoxide radical (O₂^•-) species in the PS/CAC system. Anions NO₃^-, SO₄^2-, and Cl^- slightly inhibited the phenol removal efficiency, whereas CO₃^2-, HCO₃^- and PO₄3^- did not. Ferulic acid (C₁₀H₁₀O₄) was detected as an organic byproduct of phenol oxidation. The use of CAC as a metal-free bifunctional catalyst has an important implication in the PS activation for phenol degradation in groundwater.

Keywords: Colloidal activated carbon; Persulfate; Phenol degradation; Radical.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't