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.