title: Enhanced Fenton-like removal of nitrobenzene via internal microelectrolysis in nano zerovalent iron/activated carbon composite.
abstract: The efficiency of Fenton-like catalysis using nano zerovalent iron (nZVI) is limited by nZVI aggregation and activity loss due to inactive ferric oxide forming on the nZVI surface, which hinders electron transfer. A novel iron-carbon composite catalyst consisting of nZVI and granular activated carbon (GAC), which can undergo internal iron-carbon microelectrolysis spontaneously, was successfully fabricated by the adsorption-reduction method. The catalyst efficiency was evaluated in nitrobenzene (NB) removal via the Fenton-like process (H2O2-nZVI/GAC). The results showed that nZVI/GAC composite was good for dispersing nZVI on the surface of GAC, which permitted much better removal efficiency (93.0%) than nZVI (31.0%) or GAC (20.0%) alone. Moreover, iron leaching decreased from 1.28 to 0.58 mg/L after reaction of 240 min and the oxidation kinetic of the Fenton-like reaction can be described well by the second-order reaction kinetic model (R2=0.988). The composite catalyst showed sustainable catalytic ability and GAC performed as a medium for electron transfer in internal iron-carbon microelectrolysis to promote Fe2+ regeneration and Fe3+/Fe2+ cycles. Therefore, this study represents an important method to design a low cost and high efficiency Fenton-like catalyst in practical application.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China E-mail: wuygal@163.com.
authors.forename: Sihai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China E-mail: wuygal@163.com.
authors.forename: Yaoguo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China E-mail: wuygal@163.com.
authors.forename: Hairui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China E-mail: wuygal@163.com.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Space Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China E-mail: wuygal@163.com.
authors.forename: Chengjun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002384:Catalysis; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D005290:Ferric Compounds; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D009578:Nitrobenzenes / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D005290:Ferric Compounds; D009578:Nitrobenzenes; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002606:Charcoal; C000499:ferric oxide; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D007501:Iron; C036077:nitrobenzene