Heterocyclic aromatic compounds such as malachite green can cause immense harm to the environment and mankind because of their toxic bio-accumulation and insufficient biodegradation. ZnFe 2 O 4 /TiO 2 (ZF-T) has attracted attentions as a visible-light-driven catalyst because it can break and mineralize benzene through photolysis. Compared with TiO 2 , which photodegrades only 53.5% malachite green, anatase TiO 2 loaded with ZnFe 2 O 4 has greater photocatalytic activity and can degrade up to 90.1% malachite green. Furthermore, a photocatalytic efficiency above 80% can be obtained through five consecutive cycles with a duration of 4 h. In this study, ZF-T was characterized, and its photolytic parameters, including dosage, pH, time, and ionic strength, were optimized. The photolytic products of malachite green were analyzed by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, which confirmed that ZF-T can drive visible light to produce •O 2 − and H + free radicals that can efficiently degrade heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and cleave benzene rings. These outcomes deepen our understanding of the development and applications of visible-light-driven ZF-T composites in the field of wastewater purification.
Ozone catalytic oxidation (OZCO) has gained great interest in environmental remediation while it still faces a big challenge during the deep degradation of refractory volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at room temperature. Hydroxylation of the catalytic surface provides a new strategy for regulating the catalytic activity to boost VOC degradation. Herein, OZCO of toluene at room temperature over hydroxyl-mediated MnOx/Al2O3 catalysts was originally demonstrated. Specifically, a novel hydroxyl-mediated MnOx/Al2O3 catalyst was developed via the in situ AlOOH reconstruction method and used for toluene OZCO. The toluene degradation performance of MnOx/Al2O3 was significantly superior to those of most of the state-of-the-art catalysts, and 100% toluene was removed with an excellent mineralization rate (82.3%) and catalytic stability during OZCO. ESR and in situ DRIFTs results demonstrated that surface hydroxyl groups (HGs) greatly improved the reactive oxygen species generation, thus dramatically accelerating the benzene ring breakage and deep mineralization. Furthermore, HGs provided anchoring sites for uniformly dispersing MnOx and greatly enhanced toluene adsorption and ozone activation. This work paves a way for deep decomposition of aromatic VOCs at room temperature.