He Yun, He Chiquan, Wang Feifei, Guo Xuanlin, Zhao Zhenzhen, Zhang Xinying, Chen Xueping, Liu Xiaoyan
School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shangda Road 99, Shanghai, 200444, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Feb 27. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-12737-9.
Nowadays the concern on the treatment of refractory organic pollutants (e.g., Congo red and phenolic compounds) in industrial wastewaters and their treated effluents with conventional technologies has been still continuously increasing. In this study, a novel visible light photocatalyst material, Ag/AgBr and Al loading on the attapulgite (ATP), was prepared for efficiently catalyzing the photodegradation of the two refractory substances, and its photocatalytic performance and recyclability were assessed. Results from transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction confirmed the successful loading of Ag/AgBr and Al on the ATP. The prepared Ag/AgBr-Al-ATP composite presented substantially better catalytic performance than Ag/AgBr alone probably because the ATP as a carrier of catalyst provided more contact surface for catalyst Ag/AgBr and Congo red/phenol. In the Ag/AgBr-Al-ATP composite, the photocatalyst AgBr content increased from 20.4 to 34.9% due to the modification of ATP by Al. Correspondingly, the Ag/AgBr-Al-ATP composite presented its excellent photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation: photodegradation efficiencies of Congo red and phenol of 1.73 mg/100 mg and 0.86 mg/100 mg were achieved. With the increase of pH, the photolysis efficiencies of Congo red and phenol both first increased and then decreased, whereas the optimal photocatalytic performance occurred at pH 7 for Congo red and pH 10 for phenol. The Ag/AgBr-Al composite presented a high catalytic activity for photolysis of Congo red and phenol in all the four consecutive reused cycles. The results in this study comprehensively demonstrated a promising photocatalyst for efficient removal of the similar refractory organics presented in industrial wastewaters, which deserves further investigation and development.
如今，人们对工业废水及其处理后的废水中难降解有机污染物（如刚果红和酚类化合物）采用传统技术进行处理的关注度仍在不断提高。在本研究中，制备了一种新型可见光光催化剂材料，即负载在凹凸棒石（ATP）上的Ag/AgBr和Al，用于高效催化这两种难降解物质的光降解，并评估了其光催化性能和可回收性。透射电子显微镜和X射线衍射结果证实了Ag/AgBr和Al成功负载在ATP上。制备的Ag/AgBr-Al-ATP复合材料表现出比单独的Ag/AgBr更好的催化性能，这可能是因为ATP作为催化剂载体为催化剂Ag/AgBr与刚果红/苯酚提供了更多的接触表面。在Ag/AgBr-Al-ATP复合材料中，由于Al对ATP的改性，光催化剂AgBr含量从20.4%增加到34.9%。相应地，Ag/AgBr-Al-ATP复合材料在可见光照射下表现出优异的光催化性能：刚果红和苯酚的光降解效率分别达到1.73 mg/100 mg和0.86 mg/100 mg。随着pH值的增加，刚果红和苯酚的光解效率均先升高后降低，而刚果红在pH 7、苯酚在pH 10时出现最佳光催化性能。Ag/AgBr-Al复合材料在连续四个循环重复使用中对刚果红和苯酚的光解均表现出较高的催化活性。本研究结果全面证明了一种有望高效去除工业废水中类似难降解有机物的光催化剂，值得进一步研究和开发。
