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Catalytic Oxidation of Dyeing Wastewater by Copper Oxide Activating Persulfate: Performance, Mechanism and Application

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Abstract

The effective treatment of dyeing wastewater has been considered as one of the challenges. The sulfate radical (SO4•−)-based technology exhibited great potential in the field of organic wastewater treatment. In this study, copper oxide was synthesized and used to activate persulfate (PS) for removing methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The effects of reaction parameters and coexisting substances on this process were studied. Under the optimal conditions ([CuO] = 0.2 g/L, [PS] = 2 g/L, pH = 7.0–9.0), more than 90% of MB was degraded. Cl− had little effect on MB removal, while SO42− and HCO3− showed inhibitory effect. The activation energy of the reaction was 137.8 kJ/mol at 25 ℃ with an initial MB concentration of 10 mg/L. The mechanisms of PS activated by CuO was elucidated by radical scavenger and electron spin resonance trapping studies. The results found that sulfate radical (SO4·−) and singlet oxygen (1O2) were the primary reactive oxygen species in the CuO/PS system. The recycling experiments showed that MB removal efficiency remained more than 70% after five cycles, which exhibited good stability and high efficiency of the catalyst. The favorable degradation performance of simulated textile wastewater indicated the potential application of CuO/PS for dyeing wastewater treatment.

Article Highlights

  • CuO prepared by hydrothermal method can effectively activate PS to degraded MB.

  • The optimal degradation conditions was [CuO] = 0.2 g/L, [PS] = 2 g/L, pH = 7.0–9.0.

  • SO4·− and 1O2 were the primary reactive species in the CuO/PS system.

  • MB removal efficiency remained more than 70% after 5 cycles.

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Data Availability Statement

All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support provided by the “National Natural Science Foundation of China (51908432)”, the “Support Program from the Central Government for the Local Science and Technology Development of Hubei Province (2019ZYYD068, 2018ZYYD024)”, and the “Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2018CFB397),” China.

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  1. Yuxuan Ye and Jun Wan contributed equally to this work and were the co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, 430073, People’s Republic of China

    Yuxuan Ye, Jun Wan, Qiang Li, Yangbo Huang, Fei Pan & Dongsheng Xia

  2. Engineering Research Center for Clean Production of Textile Dyeing and Printing, Ministry of Education, Wuhan, 430073, People’s Republic of China

    Yuxuan Ye, Jun Wan, Qiang Li, Yangbo Huang, Fei Pan & Dongsheng Xia

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  1. Yuxuan Ye
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Correspondence to Qiang Li or Dongsheng Xia.

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Ye, Y., Wan, J., Li, Q. et al. Catalytic Oxidation of Dyeing Wastewater by Copper Oxide Activating Persulfate: Performance, Mechanism and Application. Int J Environ Res 15, 1–10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-020-00296-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-020-00296-9

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