Novel Fenton process of Co-catalyst Co<inf>9</inf>S<inf>8</inf> quantum dots for highly efficient removal of organic pollutants

Abstract

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been widely accepted as an efficient and promising strategy for treating organic pollutants, is mainly dominated by hydroxyl radicals (•OH); however, its further practical application has been hindered by its low decomposition rate of H2O2. Hence, for the first time, we propose an eco-friendly and facile synthesis methodology synthesize water-soluble Co9S8 quantum dots (QDs) derived from commercial cobalt disulfide (CoS2), which can serve as excellent co-catalysts to dramatically enhance the decomposition rate of H2O2. It is demonstrated that the conversion rate of H2O2 into •OH is ca. 80.02% promoted by Co9S8 QDs, whereas the conventional Fenton process is ca. 34.9%. The result shows that unsaturated edged S atoms on the surface of Co9S8 play a pivotal role in this enhancement, where the number of protons will react with sulfur atoms to form H2S and expose reductive metallic active sites to accelerate the Fe3+/Fe2+ conversion. In addition, to tackle the issue for difficult recovery of liquid quantum dots, the magnetic Co9S8 QDs/Fe3O4 nanoparticles are particularly synthesized, which show excellent performance for degradation of 20 mg/L Rhodamine B (RhB). Moreover, the TOC degradation rate can remain stable at 80% even after five cycles. It is expected that this work will provide a new pathway of thinking in the Fenton process and impulse the usage of liquid quantum dots in practical AOPs application.