Degradation of diuron by heterogeneous electro-Fenton using modified magnetic activated carbon as the catalyst

Abstract

In this work, polytetrafluoroethylene coating was firstly conducted to make stable and effective magnetic-activated carbon as a heterogeneous electro-Fenton catalyst for diuron oxidation. The catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In addition, the effects of operating parameters such as catalyst dosage, current intensity, substrate concentration and pH on the degradation of diuron were investigated. The removal efficiency of diuron was more than 95% within 120 min oxidation under the conditions of I = 100 mA, pH = 6.7 ± 0.2, catalyst loading 3 g L⁻¹ and diuron concentration 10 mg L⁻¹. Moreover, the catalyst durability test demonstrated that the modification of 5% PTFE on the catalyst indeed has a significant beneficial effect on the useful life of the catalyst. We compared the performance of catalysts with or without PTFE modification in consecutive experiments; the modified catalysts exhibited remarkable advantages in that the diuron removal efficiency was stable with relatively low iron leaching (<0.1 mg L⁻¹) during ten consecutive degradation experiments, which proved the durability and reusability of the modified catalyst. This work demonstrates that such a heterogeneous EF using stable magnetic activated carbon catalyst with PTFE modification is promising for organic wastewater treatment in initial neutral pH conditions; at the same time, these good properties of the modified catalyst increase the possibility of practical application.