Comparative studies on Fenton-like reactions catalyzed by Fe₃O₄ loaded inside and outside halloysite nanotubes for the removal of organic pollutants

Abstract

In this work, Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) loaded inside and outside halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were prepared and developed as the heterogeneous Fenton-like catalysts for the removal of representative organic pollutants. Characterization results indicated that the samples with Fe₃O₄ NPs loaded outside the HNTs lumen (Fe₃O₄/HNTs) and inside the HNTs lumen (Fe₃O₄@HNTs) were successfully prepared. Both samples had typical magnetic hysteresis loops, while Fe₃O₄@HNTs exhibited higher magnetization intensity. The comparative experiments showed that Fe₃O₄@HNTs had better Fenton-like catalytic ability than that of Fe₃O₄/HNTs in the degradation of various organic pollutants. Taking Rhodamine B (RhB) as an example, the adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics of RhB onto Fe₃O₄/HNTs and Fe₃O₄@HNTs were also investigated. The comparative results demonstrated that the adsorption ability of Fe₃O₄/HNTs was better than that of Fe₃O₄@HNTs. Moreover, the dissolved concentration of Fe²⁺ and production amount of hydroxyl radical (·OH) in the Fe₃O₄@HNTs-H₂O₂ system were significantly higher than those in the Fe₃O₄/HNTs-H₂O₂ system. Based on aforementioned comparison, the nano-confinement effect in the Fe₃O₄@HNTs-H₂O₂ system was verified. This work provides meaningful guidance for the cheap and convenient design of nanoreactors for Fenton-like applications.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Fe₃O₄ / halloysite nanotube / adsorption / Fenton-like reaction / mechanism

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Declaration of competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province, China (Grant No. LH2022E083).

Online appendix

Electronic supplementary material (ESM) can be found in the online version at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-024-0673-0 and https://journal.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/10.1007/s11706-024-0673-0 that include Figs. S1 and S2.

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