Mild Temperature Oxidation of Phenol over Rare Earth Exchanged Aluminum Pillared Montmorillonites

Wastewater treatment and re-use of industrial process water are critical issues for the development of human activities and environment conservation. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the degradation of organic pollutants taking phenol as the model compound over aluminium pillared montmorillonite and the rare earth exchanged analogues, underlining the use of environ friendly clay catalysts for the effective removal of water pollutants. From the study it was noted that for reaction variables like temperature, peroxide load, catalyst load, phenol concentration etc, optimal values exist that must be taken into account for obtaining best results. The catalysts used were aluminium pillared montmorillonite prepared by partial hydrolysis method exchanged with La, Ce and Th metal salts at room temperature. Characterisation of the prepared systems were done using X-ray diffraction and surface area and pore volume measurements.The pillared montmorillonite showed considerable increase in basal spacing and BET surface area compared to parent montmorillonite.