Synthesis of a novel catalyst based on Fe(II)/Fe(III) oxide and high alumina coal fly ash for the degradation of o-methyl phenol

Abstract

Coal fly ash (CFA), is a by-product of coal combustion which has been regarded as a recalcitrant solid waste. In this work, an effective and low-cost high alumina coal fly ash catalyst was synthesised by using of high alumina coal fly ash and Fe(II)/Fe(III) oxide and the catalytic capacity of o-methyl phenol (OMP) in the Oxidative degradation was investigated. XRD, SEM and XPS were used to characterize the catalyst and the results indicated that the Fe(II)/Fe(III) oxide was successfully introduced. The character results showed that the surface area of CFA increased with increasing the loading content of the Fe(II)/Fe(III) oxide and the biggest surface area is about 69.3 m2/g with the loading content of 15 wt.%. The degradation experiment results showed that the catalytic ozonation capacity was affected by the loading of Fe(II)/Fe(III) oxide and the solution pH. The biggest removal efficiency of OMP and the reveal rate of COD were 100.0% and 44.5% which appeared at pH of 11 with the loading content of Fe(II)/Fe(III) oxide of 15 wt.%. The kinetic study of the catalytic ozonation degradation process revealed that the degradation process follows the first order kinetic model. It is indicats that the degradation process of OMP was derived from the heterogeneous Fenton process and affected by the solution pH.