Experimental study on the degradation of phenol by high efficiency three-dimensional electrode

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are toxic pollutants that are difficult to biodegrade. Electro-Fenton technique is one of the effective means to remove phenols. An Fe3O4-loaded carbon nanotube-modified nickel foam（Fe3O4/CNT/NF） particle electrode was prepared by the thermal solvent-coating-roasting method，which could generate both H2O2 and Fe2+ in the electrolytic system. A three-dimensional electrode electro-Fenton system was constructed with Fe3O4/CNT/NF as the particle electrode to degrade phenol，which has higher removal efficiency and lower energy consumption compared with the three-dimensional based on Fe3O4/NF and NF particle electrodes and two-dimensional electrode system. The reaction conditions were optimized，and the removal rate was 76.23% at degradation time of 60 min，plate spacing of 3.0 cm，Fe3O4/CNT/NF particles electrode dosage of 8.0 g/L，current of 350 mA，electrolyte concentration of 100 mmol/L，and initial pH of 4. The quenching test results showed that the hydroxyl radical（·OH） played a major role in the degradation process in this system. The electrode stability was excellent，and the phenol removal rate only decreased by 6.09% after six cycles.

Keywords

• nickel foam
• three-dimensional electro-fenton
• phenol
• particle electrode