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Sulfur-doped α-Fe2O3 as an efficient and recycled peroxydisulfate activator toward organic pollutant degradation: performance and mechanism

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Abstract

Sulfur (S)-doped α-Fe2O3 has been regarded as an excellent catalyst for eliminating organic pollutants in the photo-Fenton-like reaction. Yet, the synthetic complexity and extremely low activity in the dark Fenton-like reaction still need to be solved. In this study, magnetic α-Fe2O3 with sulfide was successfully fabricated via hydrothermal and calcination processes, for the first time, where thiourea acted as both S source and reducing agent, and then, it was applied for activating peroxydisulfate (PDS) to degrade organic contaminants. Important influencing factors were systemically investigated, and the results showed that this catalyst activating PDS was highly effective in the removal of organic pollutants in dark- and photo-Fenton-like reactions. In addition, the catalyst possessed good stability and recyclable ability. The structure of catalyst was analyzed by several characterizations, such as XRD and XPS. The results revealed that sulfide had an important effect on the structure and performance of α-Fe2O3. The detected mechanism indicated that the main reactive oxygen species were altered after switching from darkness to LED illumination. This work offered a promising method to rationally design for S/α-Fe2O3 in the environmental remediation.

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The datasets and materials in this work were available from the corresponding author on the reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51978648), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2021JJ50012), and Open Project of Key Laboratory of Low-cost Rural Environment Treatment Technology at Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Education Department of Sichuan Province (No. XCH2022ZC-17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, 421000, China

    Cai-Wu Luo, Lei Cai, Chao Xie & Tian-Jiao Jiang

  2. Key Laboratory of Low-Cost Rural Environment Treatment Technology at Education Department of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, 635000, China

    Cai-Wu Luo

  3. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Cai-Wu Luo

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  1. Cai-Wu Luo
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  2. Lei Cai
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design, writing, and revised paper. All the authors approved the final manuscript.

Cai-Wu Luo: supervision, conceptualization, resources, data collation, analysis, writing, review, and editing.

Lei Cai: experimental operation, data collation, analysis, writing, review, and editing.

Chao Xie: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing, review, and editing.

Tian-Jiao Jiang: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing, review, and editing.

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Correspondence to Cai-Wu Luo.

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Luo, CW., Cai, L., Xie, C. et al. Sulfur-doped α-Fe2O3 as an efficient and recycled peroxydisulfate activator toward organic pollutant degradation: performance and mechanism. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 117846–117861 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30163-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30163-x

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