Carbon-supported manganese for heterogeneous activation of peroxymonosulfate for the decomposition of phenol in aqueous solutions

Phenolic substances are harmful to humans and other living things, even at low concentrations. Therefore, phenol must be removed from water with the proper process. One of the most effective processes for degrading phenol is heterogeneous catalytic oxidation. Three carbon materials as supports were used to prepare manganese-oxide based catalyst (2.5% MnOx/ACP and 2.5% MnOx/ACN), and graphene oxide (2.5% MnOx/GO). These catalysts were tested for the degradation of phenol in aqueous solution using peroxymonosulfate as a source of sulfate radical. The physio-chemical catalysts were characterised by several characterisation techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, N₂-sorption (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with Dispersive Energy X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). In comparison to other catalysts, heterogeneous activation of peroxymonosulfate was more effectively done by 2.5% MnOx/ACP, resulting in a higher production rate of sulfate radicals. In the presence of a catalyst at 0.2 g and 1 g peroxymonosulfate in 500 mL solution at 25 °C, 90% total organic carbon (TOC) removal and phenol decomposition of 100% was achieved in 90 min with phenol concentration of 75 mg/L. First-order kinetics were followed by phenol decomposition with the energy of activation on 2.5% MnOx/ACP of 15.0 kJ/mol.