Abstract
Burning and dumping textile wastes have caused serious damage to the environment and are a huge waste of resources. In this work, cobalt nanoparticles embedded in active carbon fiber (Co/ACF) were prepared from bio-based fabric wastes, including cotton, flax and viscose. The obtained Co/ACF was applied as a catalyst for the heterogeneous activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to remove bisphenol A (BPA) from an aqueous solution. The results showed that cotton-, flax- and viscose-derived Co/ACF all exhibited excellent performance for BPA degradation; over ~97.0% of BPA was removed within 8 min. The Co/ACF/PMS system exhibited a wide operating pH range, with a low consumption of the catalyst (0.1 g L-1) and PMS (0.14 g L-1). The high specific surface area (342 m2/g) and mesoporous structure of Co/ACF allowed the efficient adsorption of pollutants as well as provided more accessible active sites for PMS activation. This study provided an example of using textile wastes to produce a valuable and recyclable catalyst for environmental remediation.