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 cm 3 /g) and pore size (6.51 nm) which are beneficial for the distribution of loaded copper and adsorption performance for PVA. Compared to ·OH, 1 O 2 (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.