Enhanced heterogeneous wet hydrogen peroxide catalytic oxidation performance of fly ash converted zeolite by CuO incorporation

Catalytic activity of fly ash converted zeolite X (FAZ-X) material was investigated by means of copper oxide incorporation. All the catalysts were characterized by XRF, FTIR, SEM-EDX and BET methods. Activity of the prepared catalysts for wet oxidative degradation of methylene blue (MB) with hydrogen peroxide was investigated. Influence of pH, H2O2, concentration of dye, catalyst dosage and CuO loading on activity was investigated. Under the optimal condition (catalyst dose 250 mg/L, 100 ppm dye, pH = 6.8, 1 ml H2O2, room temperature) the degradation of MB was about 100% in 120 min by CuO/FAZ-X. Based on the degradation products identified by HPLC-(-ESI)-TOF-MS, the degradation pathways of MB were proposed. Concludingly, FAZ-X has certain role in MB degradation but CuO incorporation remarkably improved the catalytic activity of FAZ-X. Efficiency of the catalyst did not decrease very much even after six reaction cycles.