Controlled deposition of Pd and In on carbon fiber felts for the catalytic reduction of nitrate in water

F. M. ZOPPAS; F. A. MARCHESINI; A. DEVARD; A. M. BERNARDES; E. E. MIRO

San Sebastian

Congreso; ICOSCAR5; 2016

Nitrate pollution is a result of intensive use of agricultural fertilizers and industrial waste effluents. In water, nitrate is considered a potentially hazardous when groundwater is used as a supply of drinking water.The human consumption of this water presents serious health risks such as blue baby syndrome, cancer, malformation and mutation, when transformed into nitrosamines [1]. The maximum levels of nitrate, nitrite and ammonium species recommended in drinking water by the World Health Organization are of 44, 0.1 and 0.5 mg/L, respectively.The catalytic reduction employing bimetallic catalysts is considered as one of the most promising methods to treat water contaminated with nitrates. In this process, nitrates are reduced to nitrogen using hydrogen or other reducing agents, but undesirable compounds as ammonia and nitrite are also formed, thus the adequate control of activity and selectivity is a key issue for the effectivity of this method.In this work, we present results about the use of carbon fiber felts as structured supports for Pd,In active phases which were deposited by the electroless Plating (ELP) technique. The catalysts were tested in the nitrate reduction reaction using both hydrogen and formic acid as reducing agents. They were also characterized using several techniques: XRD, EDS, SEM and XPS.