Efficient degradation of trichloroethylene in water using persulfate activated by reduced graphene oxide-iron nanocomposite

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) and nano-sized zero-valent iron-reduced graphene oxide (nZVI-rGO) composite were prepared. The GO and nZVI-rGO composite were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman spectroscopy. The size of nZVI was about 6 nm as observed by TEM. The system of nZVI-rGO and persulfate (PS) was used for the degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) in water, and showed 26.5% more efficiency as compared to nZVI/PS system. The different parameters were studied to determine the efficiency of nZVI-rGO to activate the PS system for the TCE degradation. By increasing the PS amount, TCE removal was also improved while no obvious effect was observed by varying the catalyst loading. Degradation was decreased as the TCE initial concentration was increased from 20 to 100 mg/L. Moreover, when initial solution pH was increased, efficiency deteriorated to 80%. Bicarbonate showed more negative effect on TCE removal among the solution matrix. To better understand the effects of radical species in the system, the scavenger tests were performed. The •SO4(-) and •O2(-) were predominant species responsible for TCE removal. The nZVI-rGO-activated PS process shows potential applications in remediation of highly toxic organic contaminants such as TCE present in the groundwater. Graphical abstract Persulfate activated by reduced graphene oxide and nano-sized zero-valent iron composite can be used for efficient degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) in water.

An efficient catalytic degradation of trichloroethene in a percarbonate system catalyzed by ultra-fine heterogeneous zeolite supported zero valent iron-nickel bimetallic composite

“…For instance, reduced graphene oxide [32], multi walled carbon nano tubes [33], mesoporous carbon [24], activated carbon [23], and mesoporous silica [34] have been frequently used as support materials in literatures. It is need of the era to find some new materials that can be used effectively as support materials in synthesis of the bimetallic catalysts and their applications.…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Supported Nanoscale Zero-Valent Iron (nZVI/rGO) Composites Used for Pb(II) Removal

“…Kaolinite was selected as the supporting material loaded with 20 wt % nZVI (K-nZVI), and the removal efficiency of Pb(II) ions was obviously higher than using bare nZVI [18]. The reduced graphene oxide-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI/rGO) composites have been considered simple and effective for the treatment of contaminants, such as cadmium, uranium, arsenic and trichloroethylene [19,20,21,22,23,24]. The nZVI/rGO composites were also used to remove Pb(II) ions in aqueous solution, and the operating parameters, such as contact time, solution pH, initial Pb(II) concentration and temperature, have been investigated [25,26].…”

The impact of surface properties and dominant ions on the effectiveness of G-nZVI heterogeneous catalyst for environmental remediation

“…Several previous researchers have studied nZVI based nanocomposites, employing GO and other supports, as a heterogeneous catalyst for degradation of chlorinated organic compounds under various oxic environments (Ahmad et al, 2015b;Danish et al, 2016a;Farooq et al, 2016;Fu et al, 2014;Gu et al, 2018). However, the influence of different cationic species on the surface and catalytic properties of G-nZVI has not been investigated.…”