Degradation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in neutral conditions based on copper-manganese bimetallic catalyst

There have been many studies on the degradation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) by the Fenton-like method, but the narrow acid-base (pH) range, poor degradation effect, and time-consuming of the Fenton-like method limit its development. Therefore, to improve the shortcomings of the Fenton-like method, the study aimed to synthesize copper-manganese bimetal oxide loaded catalysts (MnCuO@γ-Al 2 O 3 ) through the impregnation calcination method, and its potential to activate hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) for the degradation of PVA was evaluated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterizations revealed the chemical composition, structure and morphology of the prepared MnCuO@γ-Al 2 O 3 , furthermore the synergistic mechanism was proposed. Results indicated that copper and manganese could successfully attach to γ-Al 2 O 3 and reduce the specific surface area of γ-Al 2 O 3 , promoting the transformation of multivalent metals and the generation of oxygen vacancies. In addition, comparative experiments demonstrated that the PVA removal efficiency was significantly improved at the catalyst calcination temperature of 500 °C, reaction temperature of 70 °C, H 2 O 2 dosage of 125 mL·L^-1 , and catalyst dosage of 625 mg·L^-1 and more than 96