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Nano Research 2022, 15(3): 1949-1958 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3838-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 01 October 2021

Supramolecular precursor derived loofah sponge-like Fe2Ox/C for effective synergistic reaction of Fenton and photocatalysis

Show Author's Information Chen Zhao1,2,  Shien Guo3,  Qi Li1,  Jianan Liu1,  Mang Zheng1,  Xudong Xiao1,  Baojiang Jiang1( ),  Honggang Fu1( )
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, iChEM, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China
Keywords:
photocatalysis, Fe2Ox/C , Fenton, synergistic reaction, degradation of nitrobenzene
Topics:
Photocatalysis
Cite this article:
Zhao C, Guo S, Li Q, et al. Supramolecular precursor derived loofah sponge-like Fe2Ox/C for effective synergistic reaction of Fenton and photocatalysis. Nano Research, 2022, 15(3): 1949-1958. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3838-5
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Abstract Full text About this article

Fenton or photocatalytic degradations of organic contaminants are recognized as promising approaches to address the increasing environmental pollution issues. Herein, we develop the effective synergistic catalysis reaction of Fenton and photocatalysis based on a loofah sponge-like Fe2Ox/C nanocomposite, which exhibits excellent nitrobenzene photocatalytic degradation property. It is noted that Fe2O3 nanoparticles with surface Fe2+ species were encapsulated with an ultrathin carbon layer (denoted as Fe2Ox/C) via a supramolecular self-sacrificing template and following thermal treatment process. The experimental results indicated that the thin layer carbon coating not only inhibited the Fe iron leaching from the Fe2Ox but also prompted the separation and transferring of electrons–hole pairs. The introduction of Fe2Ox/C enables the Fenton reaction to induce a rapid Fe2+/Fe3+ cycle, and meanwhile, together with the photocatalytic reaction to produce continuous active substances for the subsequent degradation catalytic reaction without successive H2O2, resulting in the inexpensive and the effective photocatalytic procedure. As a result, 100% nitrobenzene (100 mg/L) was degraded and 97% of the organic carbon was mineralized in 90 min using the Fe2Ox/C (0.1 g/L) at a low H2O2 dosage (0.50 mM), under air mass (AM) 1.5 irradiation. Theoretical calculations confirmed that the Fe2Ox/C-600 with thin carbon layer promoted the dissociation of H2O2 and the ·OH desorption. The synergistic catalysis of this work may provide new ideas for low-cost and more efficient treatment of pollutants.


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Supramolecular precursor derived loofah sponge-like Fe2Ox/C for effective synergistic reaction of Fenton and photocatalysis

Show Author's information Chen Zhao1,2, Shien Guo3, Qi Li1, Jianan Liu1, Mang Zheng1, Xudong Xiao1, Baojiang Jiang1( ), Honggang Fu1( )
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, iChEM, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Abstract

Fenton or photocatalytic degradations of organic contaminants are recognized as promising approaches to address the increasing environmental pollution issues. Herein, we develop the effective synergistic catalysis reaction of Fenton and photocatalysis based on a loofah sponge-like Fe2Ox/C nanocomposite, which exhibits excellent nitrobenzene photocatalytic degradation property. It is noted that Fe2O3 nanoparticles with surface Fe2+ species were encapsulated with an ultrathin carbon layer (denoted as Fe2Ox/C) via a supramolecular self-sacrificing template and following thermal treatment process. The experimental results indicated that the thin layer carbon coating not only inhibited the Fe iron leaching from the Fe2Ox but also prompted the separation and transferring of electrons–hole pairs. The introduction of Fe2Ox/C enables the Fenton reaction to induce a rapid Fe2+/Fe3+ cycle, and meanwhile, together with the photocatalytic reaction to produce continuous active substances for the subsequent degradation catalytic reaction without successive H2O2, resulting in the inexpensive and the effective photocatalytic procedure. As a result, 100% nitrobenzene (100 mg/L) was degraded and 97% of the organic carbon was mineralized in 90 min using the Fe2Ox/C (0.1 g/L) at a low H2O2 dosage (0.50 mM), under air mass (AM) 1.5 irradiation. Theoretical calculations confirmed that the Fe2Ox/C-600 with thin carbon layer promoted the dissociation of H2O2 and the ·OH desorption. The synergistic catalysis of this work may provide new ideas for low-cost and more efficient treatment of pollutants.

Keywords: photocatalysis, Fe2Ox/C , Fenton, synergistic reaction, degradation of nitrobenzene

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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 06 July 2021
Revised: 18 August 2021
Accepted: 19 August 2021
Published: 01 October 2021
Issue date: March 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFE0201704), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21771061), and the Outstanding Youth Fund of Heilongjiang Province (No. JQ 2020B002).

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