Quantitative analysis the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a Fe/Cu/O3 process for p-nitrophenol treatment

In this study, a highly efficient catalytic ozonation with Fe/Cu bimetallic catalyst was developed for p-nitrophenol (PNP) aqueous solution treatment. The result shows that the high COD removal (94.1%) was obtained by the Fe/Cu/O-3 process, owing to the strong synergetic effect between Fe/Cu and ozone. In addition, the COD removal (94.1%) obtained by the Fe/Cu/O-3 process after 30 min treatment is twice more than the sum (45.2%) of COD removal efficiencies obtained by sole ozone and sole Fe/Cu. These results confirm that the synergetic effect between Fe/Cu and ozone played a vital role in the degradation of PNP in aqueous solution. Additionally, the formed corrosion products in exhibited high catalytic ability for ozone decomposition, which could generate more center dot OH to degrade PNP in aqueous solution. Finally, the role of various reactive oxygen species (ROS) was quantitative analyzed by a series of trapping experiments.