Development of nanostructured catalysts for catalytic oxidative water purification from organic impurities, including phenolic compounds

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to create magnetic nanocatalysts that could be used for the oxidation of organic water pollutants – phenol and its derivatives – and to determine the physicochemical characteristics of the catalysts. The development of such active nanocomposite catalysts would solve the environmental problem in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of wastewater treatment from organic impurities, including phenols, and would also contribute to the subsequent creation of domestic production of oxygen-containing compounds, since almost the entire spectrum of oxygen-containing compounds for various industries is imported into the Republic. Nanosized magnetic composites based on Fe and Co were obtained by chemical deposition, in some cases, using polyethyleneimine and polyvinylpyrrolidone. It was shown that the interaction between nanoparticles and the polymer takes place in the case of a CoFe2O4 catalyst stabilized with polyvinylpyrrolidone or polyethyleneimine, which may indicate the efficient formation of nanocomposites. According to the IR study, for the CoFe2O4 nanocomposite stabilized with polyvinylpyrrolidone, the absorption bands at 735, 663, 649, 626 cm–1 are natural vibrations for the composite nanoparticles embedded in a polyvinylpyrrolidone matrix. The synthesized nanocomposites were tested in the oxidation of phenol with oxygen. The results demonstrate that the catalysts are promising both for the purification of industrial wastewater from phenol and for the synthesis of oxygen-containing compounds in the liquid phase under mild conditions.