Catalytic oxidation of phenol analogues in aqueous medium over Fe/SBA-15

Abstract

This study evaluated the use of iron-impregnated SBA-15 (Fe/SBA-15) as a catalyst for the oxidative degradation of persistent phenol analogues, such as 2-chlorophenol (2-CP), 4-chlorophenol (4-CP), 2-nitrophenol (2-NP), 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) in water. The oxidation reactions were carried out with reaction time, concentration of the phenols, amount of the catalysts, reaction temperature, pH of the reaction mixture as the process variables with or without using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidizing agent. The conversion achieved with Fe/SBA-15 at 353 K for 2-CP, 4-CP, 2-NP, 4-NP, 2,4,6-TCP was 80.2, 71.2, 53.1, 62.8, 77.3% in 5h with a reactant to H 2O 2 mole ratio of 1:1, and 85.7, 65.8, 61.9, 63.7, 78.1% in the absence of H 2O 2, respectively. The reactions followed pseudo first order kinetics. The leachability study indicated that the catalyst released very little iron into water and therefore, the possibility of secondary pollution is negligible.