Municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash supported cobalt oxide catalysts for dye degradation using sulfate radical

Waste material of incineration bottom ash (IBA) was applied as support to load cobalt oxide catalysts for dye degradation using sulfate radicals. By using impregnation–calcination method, IBA supported cobalt oxide catalysts (Co/IBA) were prepared. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) showed that cobalt oxide particles were well dispersed on the surface of IBA. Catalytic activity evalution showed that samples prepared using IBA with particle size of 0.212–1.4 mm exhibited similar high methylene blue (MB) degradation efficiencies, owing to the similar high Fe content in IBA particles. Catalytic reaction conditions were optimized in terms of MB degradation time. Besides MB, other dyes including rhodamine B (RhB), orange II sodium salt (OS) and malachite green (MG) could all be degraded within 10 min. In addition, recycle studies showed that the activity of Co/IBA catalyst was reasonably stable within three runs. These results demonstrate the potential application of IBA as low-cost and stable support material in heterogeneous catalysis.