Ultrasonic-assisted degradation of a methylene blue using CuCo2O4 as a heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst

In this study, a copper cobaltite nanostructure was prepared as a non-ferrous heterogeneous Fenton catalyst using a one-step solvothermal method. The prepared nanocatalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The prepared CuCo2O4 exhibited outstanding activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solutions under ultrasonic irradiations. The degradation efficiency of MB was only 27.4 % in the absence of catalyst, whereas it reached more than 95.0 % in the presence of the CuCo2O4 after 60 min of ultrasonic irradiation. The trapping experiments with two radical scavengers (tert-butanol and chloroform) showed that both hydroxyl and superoxide radicals are generated during the decomposition of H2O2 and played important roles in oxidation of MB. The prepared nanocatalyst demonstrated good catalytic stability over three successive runs, without any remarkable decrease in catalytic activity.