Preliminary investigation of the degradation mechanism of o, m and p-cresol using sludge-derived carbon nanosheets by catalytic oxidation based on quantum chemistry

Abstract

Advanced oxidation technology is widely used to oxidize organic compounds in the liquid phase by OH conventionally. Here, we prepared a sludge-derived carbon nanosheets, which was applied in the catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO), catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO) and catalytic wet ozone oxidation (CWOO) systems. Because of its abundant oxygen-containing functional groups, the catalytic activity of nanosheets was much higher than some conventional catalysts. It was found that the first-order reaction model did not have similar characteristics as expected. Combining with molecular descriptors calculated by the DFT method and PLS analysis, we try to explain this phenomenon for the first time and proposed possible mechanisms for the three advanced oxidation technologies.