Study of Nickel Nanoparticles in Highly Porous Nickel Metal–Organic Framework for Efficient Heterogeneous Catalytic Ozonation of Linear Alkyl Benzene Sulfonate in Water

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), as a relatively new class of crystalline porous materials with large surface area and ultrahigh porosity, are extensively used in heterogeneous catalysts. In this study, the efficiency of heterogeneous catalytic ozonation process (COP) with a new nickel nanoparticle-based catalyst in highly porous carbon derived from nickel-MOF was investigated for Linear Alkyl benzene Sulfonate (LAS) degradation in aqueous solutions. LAS is the most frequently consumed anionic detergent and is used mainly in the household detergents such as washing powder, dishwashing liquid, and other household cleaners. Furthermore, if LAS gets in the water, it can produce eutrophication in water resources. In recent years, emphasis has been put on heterogeneous COP, which is principally based on producing the hydroxyl-free radicals. The influence of important parameters including solution pH (4–10), catalyst dosage (0.1–0.3 g/L), and ozone contact time (10–30 min) on the efficiency of COP were examined. The experimental results showed that catalytic ozonation with Ni/NHPC was the most effective at pH 10 with ozone reaction time of 30 min and the catalyst dosage of 0.3 g. Compared to the sole ozonation process (SOP), the removal percentage of LAS were 98.1% and 32.3%, respectively. These findings show that Ni/NHPC acts as an appropriate catalyst derived from nickel-MOF in COP to remove organic pollutants from aqueous solution.