Decomposing phenol by the hidden talent of ferromagnetic nanoparticles

Researches on modified Fenton reactions applied in phenol degradation have been focused on reducing secondary pollution and enhancing catalytic efficiency. Newly developed methods utilizing carriers, such as Resin and Nafion, to immobilize Fe2+ could avoid iron ion leakage. However, the requirement of high temperature and the limited reaction efficiency still restrained them from broad application. Based on a recently discovered “hidden talent” of ferromagnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), we established a MNP-catalyzed phenol removal assay, which could overcome these limitations. Our results showed that the MNPs removed over 85% phenol from aqueous solution within 3 h even at 16 °C. The catalytic condition was extensively optimized among a range of pH, temperature as well as initial concentration of phenol and H2O2. TOC and GC/MS analysis revealed that about 30% phenol was mineralized while the rest became small molecular organic acids. Moreover the MNPs were thermo-stable and could be regenerated for at least five rounds. Thus, our findings open up a wide spectrum of environmental friendly applications of MNPs showing several attractive features, such as easy preparation, low cost, thermo-stability and reusability.