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Fe3O4@C nanoparticles as high-performance Fenton-like catalyst for dye decoloration

  • Article
  • Materials Chemistry
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Water pollution has become serious environmental problem nowadays. Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) have been widely applied in water treatment. However, traditional Fenton reaction based on Fe2+-H2O2 system has obvious drawbacks, which limit its applications. In this study, magnetic Fe3O4 core-C shell nanoparticles (Fe3O4@C NPs) were prepared for the decoloration of methylene blue (MB) via the co-precipitation followed by the hydrothermal dehydrogenation of glucose. Fe3O4@C NPs showed high catalytic activity of the decoloration of MB through the decomposition of H2O2 in Fenton-like reactions. Fe3O4@C NPs had much higher activity than bare Fe3O4 cores, suggesting the coating of carbon enhanced the catalytic activity. The performance of Fe3O4@C NPs was better at lower pH and higher temperature, but was significantly inhibited in the presence of radical scavenger tertiary butanol. Fe3O4@C NPs could be magnetic separated and regenerated, and maintained with very good catalytic activity. The implication for the applications of Fe3O4@C NP-catalyzed Fenton-like reactions in water treatment was discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21307101, 21301015), the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB933402), and the Science & Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2013FZ0060).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environment Protection Engineering, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Xiaoliang Zhang, Manli He, Rong Liao, Lianqin Zhao, Jingru Xie, Ruijue Wang & Sheng-Tao Yang

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of BioProcess, College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Jia-Hui Liu

  3. Institute of Nanochemistry and Nanobiology, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Haifang Wang & Yuanfang Liu

  4. Beijing National Laboratory of Molecular Science, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Yuanfang Liu

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  1. Xiaoliang Zhang
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  2. Manli He
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  9. Haifang Wang
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  10. Yuanfang Liu
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Correspondence to Sheng-Tao Yang or Haifang Wang.

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Zhang, X., He, M., Liu, JH. et al. Fe3O4@C nanoparticles as high-performance Fenton-like catalyst for dye decoloration. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 3406–3412 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0439-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0439-7

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