title: Investigation on the rapid degradation of congo red catalyzed by activated carbon powder under microwave irradiation.
abstract: Azo dyestuff-congo red in aqueous solution can be degraded rapidly under microwave irradiation in the presence of activated carbon powder. The results showed that the degradation ratio could reach 87.79% for 25 mL total volume with 50mg/L congo red and 2.0 g/L activated carbon powder under 1.5 min microwave irradiation. Furthermore, within the same irradiation time, congo red could be degraded fully by increasing addition amount (e.g. 3.6g/L) of activated carbon powder and the degradation ratio was up to 96.49%. Otherwise, with the same addition amount, congo red also could be degraded completely by prolonging irradiation time (e.g. 2.5 min) and the degradation ratio was up to 97.88%. In addition, the influences of microwave irradiation time, initial concentration of congo red, addition amount and used times of activated carbon powder as well as solution acidity on the degradation were discussed in details adopting UV-vis spectra, FT-IR spectra, ion chromatography, high phase liquid chromatography (HPLC) and TOC analysis technologies. Here, the method using activated carbon powder as catalyst under microwave irradiation shows many advantages including high degradation ratios, short reaction time, low costs, no intermediates and no secondary pollution. Therefore, it may be fit for dealing with various azo dyestuff wastewaters on a large scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment Science, Liaoning University, Shengyang 110036, PR China. zzhlyl@163.com
authors.forename: Zhaohong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yabo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hongjie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.forename: Shuliang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Huachun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D002606:Charcoal; D002845:Chromatography; D003224:Congo Red / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008872:Microwaves; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000528:radiation effects*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants; D002606:Charcoal; D003224:Congo Red