Nano-structured catalysts applied to degrade atrazine in aqueous phase by heterogeneous photo-Fenton process

TAMARA BENZAQUEN; DEICY A. BARRERA; PAOLA M. CARRARO; KARIM SAPAG; ORLANDO M. ALFANO; EIMER, G.A.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

Lugar: HEIDELBERG; Año: 2018 p. 1 - 10

0944-1344

SBA-15 and KIT-6 materials have been synthesized and modified with iron salts by the wet impregnationmethod with different metal loadings. The different mesostructures obtained were characterized byN2 adsorption-desorption at 77 K, X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction and ultravioletvisiblespectroscopy. These iron-containing mesostructured materials have been successfully tested forthe heterogeneous photo-Fenton degradation of aqueous solutions of dangerous herbicides, such asatrazine, using UV-visible light irradiation, at room temperature and close to neutral pH. The resultsshowed that the Fe/SBA-15(10%) and Fe/KIT-6(5%) catalysts exhibited the highest activities. However,the Fe/KIT-6(5%) catalyst with minor Fe loading than Fe/SBA-15(10%) presented a higher degradationof atrazine (above 98% in a reaction time of 240 min). Therefore, the interconnectivity of the cage-likemesopores had an important influence on the catalytic activity, favoring probably mass-transfer effects.Thus, the high performance of these materials indicates that the heterogeneous via of photo-Fentonprocess can also be efficiently employed to treat wastewaters containing pollutants such as herbicides, inorder to reduce them to simplest and less toxic molecules