Oxidative degradation of aniline and benzotriazole over PAC@FeIIFe2IIIO4: A recyclable catalyst in a heterogeneous photo-Fenton-like system

A mesoporous composite PAC@(FeFe2O4)-Fe-II-O-III was synthesized, characterized and employed as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for aniline (An) and benzotriazole (BTA) degradation in the photo-Fenton oxidation process. The response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) was employed in order to evaluate the influence and interactions of the operating parameters in photo Fenton system. Under optimum conditions, the findings of experiments indicated that the presence of An and BTA simultaneously had synergistic effects on the removal efficiency, and the degradation performance in the presence of the two pollutants was higher, compared with each of them alone. The removal efficiencies of 70.4 and 99.5% were obtained for An and BTA after five successive cycles of use, demonstrating the catalytic activity of PAC@(FeFe2O4)-Fe-II-O-III was preserved effectively even after five cycles of use owing to its good stability. The degradation of both pollutants followed pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The obtained results of mineralization experiments revealed that photo-Fenton system not only improved the biodegradability, but also could provide proper conditions for biological process. Therefore, PAC@(FeFe2O4)-Fe-II-O-III could be considered as an efficient and cost-effective catalyst for the purification of contaminated waters containing multi-pollutants ecosystem. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.