Effect of activated carbon addition on H2O2 formation and dye decoloration in a pulsed discharge plasma system

Abstract

A pulsed discharge plasma (PDP) system with circulating solution was established in the paper to investigate the rule of H2O2 formation in the system. The effect of activated carbon (AC) addition on the H2O2 formation and dye decoloration was also studied. H2O2 concentration, which indicated the amount of hydroxyl radical (OH) in a PDP system, under different conditions of electrode gap, peak pulse voltage, air flow rate, initial solution pH value and activated carbon (AC) addition was first investigated. The obtained results show that 8 mm was a better electrode gap condition for the H2O2 formation due to the stronger discharge intensity and faster contact of the active species and the AO7 molecules; the measured H2O2 concentration increased with the increase of peak pulse voltage and air flow rate; higher H2O2 concentration could be got under the condition of neutral solution and 4.0 g AC addition. The addition of AC was in favor for the increase of energy efficiency as well as acid orange 7 (AO7) decoloration, which confirmed the synergistic effect of AC addition in the PDP system.