Cobalt supported chitosan-derived carbon-smectite catalyst in Oxone® induced dye degradation

Catalytic degradation of tartrazine in the presence of Oxone® activated by a catalyst constituted of cobalt supported on a nanocomposite of smectite with chitosan-derived carbon was investigated. The catalyst was synthesized using cobalt impregnation followed by carbonization at 773 K in an inert atmosphere. The synthesized catalyst was previously fully characterized using appropriate characterization methods, including XRPD, XPS, FTIR, HRTEM, and low-temperature N2-physisorption analysis. The catalytic experiments were performed by varying different experimental parameters (dye concentration, Oxone® concentration, temperature, and initial pH of the reaction solution). The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were estimated from the experimental results. The kinetics data showed the best fit with the pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The activation energy of the investigated degradation process was calculated according to the Arrhenius equation. The catalyst showed excellent performance at low temperatures even at 298 K, and in the wide range of pH values.