Abstract
The pollutants degradation rate of iron ore tailings–based heterogeneous catalysts is the main factor limiting its application. Herein, an iron ore tailings–based Fenton-like catalyst (I/W(3:1)-900-60) with a relatively fast catalysis rate was constructed by co-pyrolysis (900°C, 60 min holding time) of iron ore tailings and wheat straw with a mass ratio of 3:1. With wheat straw blending, the generated I/W(3:1)-900-60 presented a larger surface area (24.53 m2/g), smaller pore size (3.76 nm), reduced iron species (Fe2+ from magnetic), and a higher catalytic activity (0.0229 min−1) than I-900-60 (1.32 m2/g, 12.87 nm, 0.012 min−1) pyrolyzed using single iron ore tailing under the same pyrolysis conditions. In addition, biochar and iron ore tailings in I/W(3:1)-900-60 were tightly combined through chemical bonding. The optimal catalyst remains active after three cycles, indicating its catalytic stability and recyclability. The good Fenton-like methylene blue degradation efficiency of I/W(3:1)-900-60 was ascribed to the sacrificial role of biochar, as well as the electron transfer between biochar and iron active sites or the redox cycles of ≡Fe3+/Fe2+. This finding provides a facile construction strategy for highly active iron ore tailings–based Fenton-like catalyst and thereby had a great potential application in wastewater treatment.
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25 April 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20374-z
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their regards to Ms. Jing Hou for her assistance during the COD measuring experiments.
Funding
L.Gao acknowledges the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (5210040121), the Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (BK20210498), and the fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M693420).
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Lihui Gao: writing – original draft, methodology, data curation; Lizhang Wang: writing – reviewing and editing; Shulei Li: investigation, sample preparation; Yijun Cao: supervision and editing.
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Gao, L., Wang, L., Li, S. et al. Highly active Fenton-like catalyst derived from solid waste-iron ore tailings using wheat straw pyrolysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 31567–31576 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17168-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17168-0