Degradation of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution by ozone-ceramic honeycomb

The degradation of nitrobenzene by ceramic-honeycomb catalyzed ozonation was investigated. The results showed that the presence of ceramic honeycombs significantly increased the oxidation rate of nitrobenzene by ozone compared to the case of ozone oxidation alone. In this paper, the effects of various factors on the catalytic oxidation were investigated, such as the amount of catalysts, the ozone dosage, the temperature, the pH value and the presence of tert-butanol. With the addition of tert-butanol the removal of nitrobenzene decreased sharply, which appeared to support that, the degradation of nitrobenzene by ozonation followed a radical type mechanism. The EPR experiments verified that higher nitrobenzene removal rate was attributed to more OH radicals generated in the catalyzed ozonation than ozonation alone.