Effective removal of phenol by using activated carbon supported iron prepared under microwave irradiation as a reusable heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst

- Use iron supported on activated carbon prepared in microwave furnace as heterogeneous Fenton catalyst to decompose phenol.
- Hydrogen peroxide oxidization has been considered in the adsorption process.
- Improved method was adopted to evaluate the contribution of phenol removal in the homogeneous process.

In this paper, an iron-based catalyst supported on activated carbon was prepared in a microwave furnace as a heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for phenol degradation. The performance of Fe/AC in the process of catalytic wet peroxide oxidation was evaluated. The adsorption of the catalyst and its support in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and the contribution of a homogeneous reaction in this system was reassessed. We found the iron-based catalyst supported on activated carbon showed a high rate of activity in the process of phenol removal. Phenol and TOC removal were 91% and 48% respectively, in optimal conditions. In the case of the Fe/AC/H2O2 system in the conditions we investigated, the catalyst adsorption capacity decreased due to the introduction of oxygen-containing carbon surface groups in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The relatively high stability of this catalyst was observed. Only a 10% decrease of catalytic activity was reached after the fourth cycling run. The iron leaching which led to the homogeneous reaction can be ignored because only 1.6% of phenol removal was achieved in the homogeneous condition.