Efficient Degradation of Organic Pollutants by Activation of Sodium Percarbonate with CuFeS2 Catalytic Membrane

Abstract

By constructing catalytic membranes, the tedious post-treatment catalyst separation during the utilization of powdered catalysts can be avoided. In this work, a copper ferrous disulfide catalytic membrane (CuFeS₂-M) prepared by in-situ loading CuFeS₂ on a ceramic tubular membrane was employed to activate sodium percarbonate (SPC) towards the degradation of organic dye pollutants. Under the optimum conditions (SPC dosage of 8.0 mM and flow rate of 1.0 mL/min), the removal efficiency of 10 mg/L acid orange 7 (AO7) achieved 97.93%, and several other organic dyes were also efficiently removed by 75.23–95.96%. The coexisting inorganic anions and humic acid showed little detrimental effect on the removal of AO7. Reusability tests showed that CuFeS₂-M could effectively catalyze the degradation of AO7, removing around 7 mg of AO7 during the operation time of 12 h from both deionized water and synthetic wastewater. Furthermore, the degradation mechanism analysis revealed that CO₃^•− was the main reactive oxidative species. Finally, the degradation pathway of AO7 was investigated, and the environmental toxicity effects of the degradation products were also predicted. Therefore, the CuFeS₂-M/SPC system exhibited prospective application for the oxidative removal of AO7 and other organic dyes from water.