Iron-containing palygorskite clay as Fenton reagent for the catalytic degradation of phenol in water

Heterogeneous Fenton systems have great application prospects in the catalytic degradation of organic wastewater; however, they are still not widely used in operation due to the difficulty of preparing catalysts in low yields and the high manufacturing cost. Herein, we report that a pristine iron-containing palygorskite clay can be used as a Fenton catalyst reagent without any retreatment. The composition, morphology, and structure of palygorskite clay, as well as the distribution and content of Fe element in palygorskite, were characterized via several physicochemical techniques. The degradation reaction of phenol in water was carried out as a probe reaction for the palygorskite Fenton reagent. The effects of the palygorskite content, pH value, and hydrogen peroxide concentration on the degradation efficiency of phenol were studied. Under optimum operating conditions, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation efficiency of phenol reaches 94% with a reaction temperature of 20 °C and a reaction time of 15 min.