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Reduction of nitrobenzene with sulfides catalyzed by the black carbons from crop-residue ashes

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Abstract

In this paper, three types of black carbons (BCs) named R-BC, W-BC, and C-BC were derived from rice straw ashes, wheat straw ashes, and corn straw ashes, respectively. Under room temperature and in an anaerobic aqueous solution, these three types of BCs could catalyze the reduction of nitrobenzene (NB) by sulfides rather than only act as the superabsorbent. The catalytic activities of BCs derived from different crop-residue ashes were very different and in the order of R-BC > W-BC > C-BC, since the reaction rate constants (k obs) of NB with the BCs in the presence of 3 mM sulfides were 0.0186, 0.0063, and 0.0051 h−1, respectively. The key catalytic active sites for NB reduction were evaluated, with four types of modified BCs and two types of tailored graphite as the model catalysts. The results indicated that BCs probably had two types of active sites for NB reduction, the microscopic graphene moieties and the surface oxygen functional groups. Since the sulfides and BCs often coexist in the environment, this BC-catalyzed reduction technology of NACs may be applied as an in situ remediation technique without the need for reagent addition.

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Acknowledgments

The research was financially supported by the National Science Foundation for Innovative Research Group (51121003), Major State Basic Research Development Program (2013CB430405), National Natural Science Foundation of China (20977009), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Wenwen Gong, Xinhui Liu, Li Tao, Wei Xue, Wenjun Fu & Dengmiao Cheng

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  1. Wenwen Gong
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  2. Xinhui Liu
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  3. Li Tao
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  4. Wei Xue
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  5. Wenjun Fu
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  6. Dengmiao Cheng
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Correspondence to Xinhui Liu.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Gong, W., Liu, X., Tao, L. et al. Reduction of nitrobenzene with sulfides catalyzed by the black carbons from crop-residue ashes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 6162–6169 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2533-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2533-4

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