Magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles supported on carbonized corncob as heterogeneous Fenton catalyst for efficient degradation of methyl orange

The pollution especially organic dyes pollution of water resources is an urgent issue to be solved. It is crucial to develop highly efficient, low cost and recyclable heterogeneous catalysts for wastewater treatment. In this study, a heterogeneous Fenton catalyst loaded with Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles was prepared by one step pyrolysis using natural crop waste corncob as carbon source. The prepared porous carbon catalyst can effectively degrade methyl orange (MO, 25 mg·L −1 ) at room temperature, and the degradation rate is 99.7%. In addition to high catalytic degradation activity, the layered porous carbon structure of the catalyst also provides high stability and reusability. The degradation rate can be maintained above 93% after 10 cycles. Furthermore, the prepared catalyst is magnetic, which makes the catalyst easy to recycle in practical applications. In addition, the prepared Fe 3 O 4 /RCC catalyst has efficient Fenton degradation activity for bisphenol A (BPA) (96.9%) and antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) (95.5%), which proves that it has universal applicability for the degradation of most organic pollutants. This study provides a feasible and scalable strategy to prepare a heterogeneous Fenton catalyst treating wastewater and high-value utilization of biomass waste.