Electro-Fenton method for the removal of Malachite Green: effect of operational parameters

Maryam Teymori, Hassan Khorsandi, Ali Ahmad Aghapour, Seyed Javad Jafari, Ramin Maleki
2019 Applied Water Science  
This study aims to evaluate the degradation and mineralization of Malachite Green (MG) in an electro-Fenton process (EFP). We studied the influence of several important parameters including solution pH (2-11), current density (0-20 mA/cm 2 ), H 2 O 2 concentration (0-200 mg/L) and MG concentrations (200, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 mg/L) at different reaction time (2.5-30 min). The intermediates produced during the degradation were determined by GC-MS. The optimum pH, current density and H 2 O
more » ... concentration were found to be approximately 3, 10 mA/cm 2 and 50 mg/L, respectively. It was concluded that acidic pH was required to increase the efficiency of the EFP. At optimum conditions and a reaction time of 15 min, MG was completely removed without any significant variation in the corresponding maximum wavelengths or new absorption bands. Due to formation of intermediates, almost all the organic compounds were completely mineralized (95.3%) to CO 2 and water at reaction time of 30 min. Results indicated the effect of hydroxyl radical ( · OH) on MG degradation is greater than that of superoxide radical scavenger ( O ⋅− 2 ). The results showed that the degradation process of MG followed pseudo-firstorder kinetic model and the treatment time required in EFP was 4.6 times lower than ECP. Furthermore, the results showed that EFP was an extremely efficient process for degradation and mineralization of a high concentration of MG (1000 mg/L) at a short reaction time (30 min).
doi:10.1007/s13201-019-1123-5 fatcat:3h2lo4ckj5eb3j2cwqzecjg5j4