Enhanced catalytic oxidation of 2,4-dichlorophenol via singlet oxygen dominated peroxymonosulfate activation on CoOOH@Bi₂O₃ composite

Highlights

• Bi₂O₃ cannot directly activate PMS.

• Bi₂O₃ loading increased the specific surface area and conductivity of CoOOH.

• Larger specific surface area provided more active sites for PMS activation.

• Faster electron transfer rate promoted the generation of reactive oxygen species.

• ¹O₂ was identified as dominant ROS in the CoOOH@Bi₂O₃/PMS system.

Abstract

Cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) has been turned out to be a high-efficiency catalyst for peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. In this study, CoOOH was loaded on bismuth oxide (Bi₂O₃) using a facile chemical precipitation process to improve its catalytic activity and stability. The result showed that the catalytic performance on the 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) degradation was significantly enhanced with only 11 wt% Bi₂O₃ loading. The degradation rate in the CoOOH@Bi₂O₃/PMS system (0.2011 min⁻¹) was nearly 6.0 times higher than that in the CoOOH/PMS system (0.0337 min⁻¹). Furthermore, CoOOH@Bi₂O₃ displayed better stability with less Co ions leaching (16.4% lower than CoOOH) in the PMS system. These phenomena were attributed to the Bi₂O₃ loading which significantly increased the conductivity and specific surface area of the CoOOH@Bi₂O₃ composite. Faster electron transfer facilitated the redox reaction of Co (III) / Co (II) and thus was more favorable for reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Meanwhile, larger specific surface area furnished more active sites for PMS activation. More importantly, there were both non-radical (¹O₂) and radicals (SO₄⁻•, O₂⁻•, and OH•) in the CoOOH@Bi₂O₃/PMS system and ¹O₂ was the dominant one. In general, this study provided a simple and practical strategy to enhance the catalytic activity and stability of cobalt oxyhydroxide in the PMS system.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Cobalt oxyhydroxide / Bismuth oxide / Peroxymonosulfate / 2 / 4-dichlorophenol / Singlet oxygen / Electron transfer

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Acknowledgements

The present work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Provincial Science & Technology Department (Grant No. 20180101081JC, 20200403034SF), the Science and Technology Project of the Education Department of Jilin Province (Grant No. JJKH20190125KJ). Besides, we would thank to the supervision of Professor Wei Feng from Jilin University for this work.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1347-5 and is accessible for authorized users.

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