Enhanced degradation of organic pollutants over Cu-doped LaAlO3 perovskite through heterogeneous Fenton-like reactions.

Cu-doped LaAlO 3 perovskite (LaAl 1−x Cu x O 3 ) was synthesized via a Pechini-type sol–gel process for the oxidative degradation of persistent organic compounds. The characterization results show that Cu was incorporated into the structure of sphere-like LaAlO 3 and formed the bond of La/Al O Cu. LaAl 0.95 Cu 0.05 O 3 performed excellent activity and stability for the degradation and mineralization of various organic pollutants through heterogeneous Fenton-like reactions. In the practical reaction process, at the organic pollutant initial concentration of 25 mg L −1 , 1.0 mol H 2 O 2 produces 1.8 mol HO radicals within 60 min and 1.0 mol H 2 O 2 still produces 1.3 mol HO radicals after reaction time of 240 min. The results of ESR and active species trapping experiments indicated that HO radicals acted the dominant role during the degradation of pollutants in LaAl 0.95 Cu 0.05 O 3 /H 2 O 2 system. Combining with in-situ Raman analysis and the XPS results of LaAl 0.95 Cu 0.05 O 3 before and after reaction, H 2 O 2 was predominantly reduced to HO on the electron-rich Cu center, and H 2 O 2 /H 2 O can be dissociated on oxygen vacancies (OVs) to enhance formation of HO on the surface of LaAl 0.95 Cu 0.05 O 3 , resulting in the high catalytic activity of LaAl 0.95 Cu 0.05 O 3 . This efficient material can potentially be used as a promising catalyst for the efficient degradation of organic pollutants in environmental pollution cleanup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]