Phenol degradation by a combined hydrogenation and photocatalytic oxidation over the bifunctional Rh/WO3 catalyst

Abstract

The combination of hydrogenation and photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) was proposed and successfully applied for phenol degradation. A new bifunctional Rh/WO3 catalyst, with both hydrogenation ability and PCO activity, was developed for the combined hydrogenation-PCO process by depositing Rh on WO3. The synergistic catalytic effect occurs between Rh and WO3, resulting in a high hydrogenation-PCO performance of the Rh/WO3 catalyst. The hydrogenation-PCO over Rh/WO3 catalyst exhibited an excellent phenol removal efficiency (almost 100%) in the first 15 min hydrogenation step, which is much higher than PCO. Furthermore, the TOC removal efficiency of hydrogenation-PCO (27.6%) is more than four times that of PCO (5.7%). This work suggests that the combined hydrogenation-PCO strategy has a promising prospect for the treatment of wastewater containing phenolic compounds.