Facile synthesis of mesoporous Co3O4 with excellent performance for activation of PMS

In this paper, we describe the feasibility of a simple and novel approach for preparing mesoporous Co3O4 catalysts by precipitating of Co(OH)(2)/egg white (EW) inEW/water colloidal solution and post-calcination treatment. The prepared meso-Co3O4 materials were characterized by a range of analytical techniques including XRD, TEM, SEM, EDS, FT-IR, BET and XPS. The results showed the synthesized mesoporous Co3O4 materials were of high crystallinity and large specific surface area. The organic groups in egg white could help to inhibit the excessive growth of Co3O4 grains and form mesoporous structure of Co3O4. The synthesized mesoporous Co3O4 materials were applied to activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the catalytic degradation of 2-sec-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol (DNBP) in aqueous solution. The results showed that as-fabricated mesoporous Co3O4 calcinated at 500 degrees Ccould act as high-performance heterogeneous catalytic activator for PMS to degrade DNBP. Depended on data fitting, the oxidation system well corresponded to pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Based on quencing experiments, it demonstrated that sulfate radicals served as predominant reactive species in the PMS activation catalytic processes. The mesoporous Co3O4 materials exhibited excellent reproducibility and catalytic performance, which made the application of mesoporous Co3O4 in PMS activation for degrading organic pollutants more feasible and practical.