ZnO/MoO3 mixed oxide nanotube: A highly efficient and stable catalyst for degradation of dye by air under room conditions

As a continuation of our work to develop catalysts with high activity for catalytic air wet oxidation process under mild conditions, degradation of wastewater containing 0.3 g/L Safranin-T (ST) by air oxidation over ZnO/MoO3 nanotube catalyst was studied. It was found the decolorization efficiency and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of ST reached above 98% and 95%, respectively, within 18 min at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. And the organic pollutants were totally mineralized to simple inorganic species such as HCO3−, Cl− and NO3−, while the total organic carbon (TOC) decreased 99.3%. The structure and morphology of the catalyst after ten cycling runs showed that the catalyst was stable under such operating condition and the leaching test showed negligible leaching effect. This ZnO/MoO3 nanotube is proved to be an active and stable heterogeneous catalyst in CWAO of ST under extremely mild conditions.