Catalytic degradation of O‐cresol using H2O2 onto Algerian Clay‐Na

Abstract

Clay material is used as a catalyst to degrade an organic pollutant,. This study focused on the O‐cresol oxidative degradation in aqueous solution by adding H2O2 and Mont‐Na. The catalytic tests showed a high catalytic activity of Mont‐Na, which made it possible to achieve more than 84.6% conversion after 90 minutes of reaction time at 55 °C in 23.2 mM H2O2. The pH value was found to be negatively correlated with the degradation rate of O‐cresol. UV‐Vis spectrophotometry revealed that the increase of degradation rate at low pH is related to the formation of 2‐Methylbenzoquinone as intermediate product. In addition, the content of iron in Mont‐Na decreased after the catalytic test, bringing further evidence about the O‐cresol catalytic oxidation. The mineralization of O‐cresol is also confirmed by the different methods of characterization of Mont‐Na after the catalytic oxidation test. The effect of the O‐cresol oxidation catalyzed by natural clay is significant.