Influence of preparation method on copper ferrite characteristics for the efficient degradation of trichloroethylene in persulfate activated system

Abstract In this study, the morphology, surface features, textural properties, size of particles and the catalytic efficiencies of synthesized CuFe2O4 by three different methods including sol–gel (SG), coprecipitation (CP), and solvothermal (ST) were evaluated. Various analytical techniques including SEM, TEM, XRD, N2 adsorption–desorption, EDS elemental mapping, FTIR, and XPS were employed for characteristics exploration. The characterization results showed that the synthesis method could influence the characteristics of spinal ferrite and ST-CuFe2O4 catalyst exhibited larger specific surface area (65.2 m2/g) and micro-pore volume (0.4512 cm3/g) than the catalyst prepared by CP (30.6 m2/g and 0.1298 cm3/g) and SG (18.2 m2/g and 0.0521 cm3/g) methods, respectively. Further, the XRD and FTIR results validated the formation of a highly crystalline ferrite structure synthesized by the ST method. Consequently, the catalytic results revealed that ST-CuFe2O4 catalyst exhibited excellent TCE removal (94.6%) in the persulfate (6 mM) (PS) process along with significant reusability. Moreover, scavenging test and EPR analysis validated the dominant role of SO4•− radicals for TCE removal in the PS/ST-CuFe2O4 system. Lastly, the TCE removal performance of ST-CuFe2O4 catalyst in real water matrix elucidated that PS/ST-CuFe2O4 system has promising potential and can practically be applied for remediation of TCE contaminated groundwater in ISCO practice. The ferrite synthesized by the ST method exhibited excellent catalytic performance among the three methods underlining the importance of preparation means in determining the catalytic potential of ferrite.