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The yield of ˙OH and oxidation of pollutants by biochar/H2O2 were enhanced dramatically by trace dissolved Fe(iii).

The Fenton-type oxidation catalyzed by iron minerals is a cost-efficient and environment-friendly technology for the degradation of organic pollutants in water, but their catalytic activity needs to be enhanced. In this work, a novel biochar-supported composite containing both iron sulfide and iron oxide was prepared, and used for catalytic degradation of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin through Fenton-type reactions. Dispersion of FeS/Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles was observed with scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Formation of ferrous sulfide (FeS) and magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) in the composite was validated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Ciprofloxacin (initial concentration = 20 mg/L) was completely degraded within 45 min in the system catalyzed by this biochar-supported magnetic composite at a dosage of 1.0 g/L. Hydroxyl radicals (·OH) were proved to be the major reactive species contributing to the degradation reaction. The biochar increased the production of ·OH, but decreased the consumption of H 2 O 2 , and helped transform Fe 3+ into Fe 2+ , according to the comparison studies using the unsupported FeS/Fe 3 O 4 as the catalyst. All the three biochars prepared by pyrolysis at different temperatures (400, 500 and 600 • C) were capable for enhancing the reactivity of the iron compound catalyst.

The application of biosorption in the removal of heavy metals from water faces a challenge of safe disposal of contaminated biomass. In this study, a potential solution for this problem was proposed by using a biosorption-pyrolysis process featured by pretreatment of biomass with phosphoric acid (PA). The PA pretreatment of biomass increased the removal efficiency of heavy metal Pb from water by sorption, and subsequent pyrolysis helped immobilize Pb in the residual char. The results indicate that most (>95%) of the Pb adsorbed by the PA-pretreated biomass was retained in the char, and that the lower pyrolysis temperature (350°C) is more favorable for Pb immobilization. In this way, the bioavailable Pb in the char was hardly detected, while the Pb leachable in acidic solution decreased to <3% of total Pb in the char. However, higher pyrolysis temperature (450 °C) is unfavorable for Pb immobilization, as both the leachable and bioavailable Pb increased to >28%. The reason should be related to the formation of elemental Pb and unstable Pb compounds during pyrolysis at 450 °C, according to the X-ray diffraction study.