title: Oxidative degradation of organic pollutants in aqueous solution using zero valent copper under aerobic atmosphere condition.
abstract: Oxidative degradation of organic pollutants and its mechanism were investigated in aqueous solution using zero valent copper (ZVC) under aerobic atmosphere condition. Diethyl phthalate (DEP) was completely oxidized after 120 min reaction by ZVC at initial pH 2.5 open to the air. DEP degradation followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics after the lag period, and the degradation rate of DEP increased gradually with the increase of ZVC dosage, and the decrease of initial pH from 5.8 to 2.0. ZVC required a shorter induction time and exhibited persistent oxidation capacity compared to that of zero valent iron and zero valent aluminium. The mechanism investigation showed that remarkable amount of Cu(+)/Cu(2+) and H2O2 were formed in ZVC acidic system, which was due to the corrosive dissolution of ZVC and the concurrent reduction of oxygen. The addition of tert-butanol completely inhibited the degradation of DEP and the addition of Fe(2+) greatly enhanced the degradation rate, which demonstrated that hydroxyl radical was mainly responsible for the degradation of DEP in ZVC acidic system under aerobic atmosphere condition, and the formation of hydroxyl radical was attributed to the Fenton-like reaction of in situ formed Cu(+) with H2O2.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710050, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, People's Republic of China; Beijing General Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute, Beijing 100082, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Jun
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: majun@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710050, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ting-Lin
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zheng-Qian
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Structures Dynamic Behavior and Control, Harbin Institute of Technology, Ministry of Education, Harbin 150090, People's Republic of China; School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710050, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jin-Lan
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry*; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D017665:Hydroxyl Radical / Q000737:chemistry; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010795:Phthalic Acids; D012996:Solutions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D017665:Hydroxyl Radical; D003300:Copper; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D010100:Oxygen; C007379:diethyl phthalate
keywords: Hydroxyl radical; Mechanism; Organic pollutants; Oxidative degradation; Zero valent copper