Catalytic Degradation of Organics by a Novel Sludge Carbon Composite Reinforced with Steel Slag

It is generally challenging to design efficient, low-cost, and environmentally friendly persulfate catalytic materials for wastewater purification. We report a simple strategy to synthesize steel slag-sludge carbon with steel slag as template, suspended sludge as precursor, and one-step pyrolysis. We used the steel slag-sludge carbon as a persulfate activator to remove phenol and organic matter from an actual wastewater leachate. Steel slag-sludge carbon had a shell structure, a large surface area, abundant adsorption groups, and polymetallic catalytic capacity including Fe0. The steel slag-sludge carbon can activate persulfate to produce free radicals and the phenol degradation rate reach 94.5% with 55 minutes, even 6 and 44 times than that of sludge carbon and steel slag; The overall removal rate of organic matter from an actual wastewater leachate can reach 77.75%, fluorescent substances were totally removed. This work provides a new approach for designing persulfate catalysts that have high efficiency and are derived from green resources. Further, our approach is practical for treatment of wastewater that has high concentrations of organic material.