Anchored Iron Ligands as an Efficient Fenton-Like Catalyst for Removal of Dye Pollutants at Neutral pH

Abstract

The development of a pH-tolerant Fenton-like catalyst is an active and challenging research front in the area of environmental engineering. In the present work, a novel catalyst iron−γ-aminopyridine ligand (FeAPy) was prepared and immobilized on activated carbon fibers (ACFs) by a covalent bond to obtain a heterogeneous FeAPy-ACFs. FeAPy-ACFs present a pH-tolerant microenvironment for the Fenton-like oxidation process, which exhibits remarkable catalytic ability across a wide pH range from acidic to alkaline. At neutral pH, employing hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant, the FeAPy-ACFs showed enhanced catalytic ability to degrade hazardous environmental pollutants Acid Red 1 (AR1) dyes and avoid secondary pollution with regard to FeAPy. FeAPy-ACFs are stable and remain efficient in repetitive test cycles with no obvious decrease of catalytic activity. Moreover, in comparison to most reported supports for Fenton-like catalyst, the introduction of ACFs contributed specifically to the activity improvement of FeAP...