Enriched adsorption and photocatalytic Fenton catalytic degradation of organic pollutants by CuBi2O4 loaded non-metallic modified graphene composite hydrogels

Abstract

Adsorption and advanced oxidation technology are important means to remove organic pollutants, and the combination of adsorption and catalytic degradation to construct a multi-field coupled system can realize valid adsorption and degradation of organic contaminants. In this paper, CuBi2O4 supported by a nonmetallic element-modified graphene hydrogel composite structure CuBi2O4/X-rGH (X = N, P, S, B) was synthesized and applied to the efficient removal of organic pollutants. We found that the doping of nonmetallic elements enhances the graphene conjugated large π-bond system, which not only improves the adsorption performance of pollutants but also increases the graphene conductivity and builds more carrier transport channels, which is beneficial to the photocatalytic Fenton synergistic degradation activity. Among them, CuBi2O4/P-rGH could achieve 90 % degradation of phenol (50 ppm) after 20 min of turning on the light, which was nearly 2 times more than the degradation activity of CuBi2O4/rGH. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and quenching experiments proved that ·OH was the main active species in the synergistic degradation process, and the mechanism of adsorption of nonmetallic modified graphene hydrogel hybrid catalysts and in situ photocatalytic Fenton degradation of pollutants was proposed.