Oxidative degradation of organic pollutants using reusable catalyst

Organic pollutants contaminate the water. This is the first approach to the oxidative degradation of organic pollutants by using graphene oxide (GO) as a catalyst. The catalytic activity of as-prepared GO was investigated by oxidative degradation of methylene blue (MB). The dye degradation studies were conducted at different concentrations, does, times and conditions. 12 mg GO was able to degrade 35 ppm of 100 mL MB solution within 30 min. The recyclability study was successfully conducted with reused catalyst, which depends on the functional, active oxygen molecules on the catalyst surface. Therefore, the treatment of the used catalyst with H2O2 before reusing it for the following response made it useable unlimited times, confirmed with ten consecutive cycles. In comparison, only graphite could not show such oxidative degradation properties due to the absence of oxygen functionalities. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) analysis confirmed the oxidative degradation of MB up to 82.56%. The dye degradation ability was also efficiently demonstrated with other dyes, such as brilliant green (BG), acid orange-II (AO-II) and their mixture, while the degradation process was monitored by UV-vis spectrophotometer. Overall, synthesized GO served as a reusable oxidative catalyst for degrading organic pollutants.