Heterogeneous photo-assisted Fenton catalytic removal of tetracycline using Fe-Ce pillared bentonite

• DOI: 10.1007/s11771-014-1942-3
• Publication Date: 2014-02-28T11:21:40Z
• Authors: Ya-ping Zhang; Cheng-guang Jia; Ran Peng; Feng Ma; Guang-nan Ou
• Keywords: Bentonite; Degradation; Hydroxyl radical

In the present work, a novel heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst was prepared by iron and cerium pillared bentonite. The catalyst Fe-Ce/bentonite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods. It is found that Fe and Ce intercalate into the silicate layers of bentonite successfully. Tetracycline was removed by heterogeneous photo-Fenton reaction using the catalyst in this work. The effects of different reaction systems, hydrogen peroxide concentration, initial pH, catalyst dosage, UV power and introduction of different anions on degradation were investigated in details. The stability of catalyst was investigated through recycling experiment. The results show that removal rate of tetracycline is 98.13% under the conditions of 15 mmol/L H2O2, 0.50 g/L catalyst dosage, initial pH 3.0, 11 W UV lamp power and 60 min reaction time. However, the removal rate decreases after adding some anions. The hydroxyl radical plays an important role in heterogeneous photo-assisted Fenton degradation of tetracycline. The catalyst is very stable and can be recycled many times.