ARTÍCULO

Use of ligand based iron complexes for phenol degradation for Fenton process

Iván A. Reyes, Francisco Patiño, Mizraim Flores, Jayanthi Narayanan, Hilda Calderon and Thangarasu Pandiyan
J. Mex. Chem. Soc., 57:2, 96-104, 2013.

ABSTRACT:

The efficiency of phenol degradation by the iron complexes ([Fe(TBMA)Cl3∙3H2O] and [Fe(terpy)Cl2]) is compared with that of the Fenton reaction. The results show that although the Fenton reaction efficiently oxidizes phenol at low pH’s, the Fenton modified reagents (iron complexes/H2O2) effectively oxidize phenol at neutral pH. Besides, the factorial designing study is performed by considering three independent variables: (i) [Fe] (A), (ii) pH (B), and (iii) [H2O2] (C). For the Fenton reaction, the normal probability plot reveals that two factors, such as concentration of Fe2+ and interaction{[H2O2]∙pH} have considerable influence on the phenol oxidation; in the normal probability plot of the complexes, factors C (concentration of H2O2) and AC {[Fe]∙[H2O2]} have an effect on the oxidation of the phenol by [Fe(terpy)Cl2]/H2O2, while for [Fe(TBMA)Cl3∙3H2O], factors B and AC significantly influence the degradation. Of both iron complexes, [Fe(TBMA)Cl3∙3H2O]/H2O2 is an excellent oxidant, showing a good response at pH 7.0.