Au/C Catalysts For The Heterogeneous-Fenton Degradation Of Organic Contaminants

Since gold nanocatalysts were found highly active toward CO oxidation at or below room temperature decades ago, the applications of those catalysts have been widely explored. In this thesis, Au/active carbon, for the first time, was used a Fenton-like catalyst for the degradation of organic compounds (in the case of bisphenol A, BPA). Au was deposited on styrene resin-based active carbon spheres (treated by HNO3 and Fenton) from aqueous solution of ethylenediamine complex [Au(en)2]Cl3 via ion exchange with protons of surface functional groups. The optimum preparation condition is:the precursor solution pH=10, reduction temperature at 300℃, the gold loading of 1.5wt%. The reaction conditions are as follows:pH=3, T=40℃, H2O2(500ppm). After reaction 12 h, about 75% BPA was degraded. The catalyst can be reused several times without losing catalytic activity. the catalysts were thoroughly characterized using BET, XRD, EPR and TEM. Those results indicated that the treatments produced the highly dispersed Au species on the catalyst surface. And the EPR spectra demonstrated the creation of hydroxyl radicals in the reaction.