Performance of alkali and Cu-modified ZSM-5 during catalytic ozonation of polyvinyl alcohol in aqueous solution

A novel hierarchical Cu/ZSM-5 was prepared over alkaline treatment and incipient wet impregnation method for the catalytic ozonation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Under the optimum preparation conditions, hierarchical Cu/ZSM-5 exhibited an excellent mineralization performance during the PVA degradation process, and the removal rate of TOC after 60 min of reaction was 47.86%, much higher than that of ozonation alone (5.40%). Its high catalytic activity could attribute to the large pore volume (0.27 cm3/g) and pore size (6.51 nm) which are beneficial for the distribution of loaded copper and adsorption performance for PVA. Compared to ·OH, 1O2 (2.66 times in 10 min) contributed more to the removal of PVA. The degradation of PVA was a combined process of direct ozone oxidation, catalytic ozonation and adsorption. With its high catalytic performance and stability, hierarchical Cu/ZSM-5 has a very broad application prospect in the process of catalytic ozonation of refractory pollutants.