Efficient oxidative degradation of triclosan by using an enhanced Fenton-like process

The degradation of triclosan was investigated in the presence of H2O2 as oxidant and BiFeO3 magnetic nanoparticles (BiFeO3 MNPs) as catalyst at pH 6.0 and room temperature. It was found that the alone addition of H2O2 (10.0 mmol L−1) induced little degradation of the added triclosan (34.5 μmol L−1) after reaction time of 180 min, but the use of BiFeO3 MNPs (0.5 g L−1) increased the triclosan removal to 82.7% in the presence of H2O2. The degradation of triclosan was accompanied by considerable generation and accumulation of carcinogenic 2,4-dichlorophenol. The surface modification of BiFeO3 MNPs by organic ligands such as EDTA was used to enhance the catalytic ability of BiFeO3 MNPs. The addition of EDTA (0.5 mmol L−1) into the triclosan–H2O2–BiFeO3 MNPs system not only resulted in almost complete degradation of the added triclosan within 30 min, but also greatly inhibited the accumulation of the toxic intermediate 2,4-dichlorophenol. The kinetics was clarified for the green catalytic degradation of triclosan in the investigated systems.

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► The efficient degradation of triclosan is achieved by using H2O2 and BiFeO3 MNPs.
► Carcinogenic DCP may be accumulated in conventional triclosan degradation.
► Addition of EDTA enhanced triclosan degradation and depressed DCP accumulation.
► A mechanism of triclosan degradation was proposed in the enhance Fenton-like process.