A slight decrease in the degradation rate of R6G occurred with the increase in the recycle number. We observed that the color of the LFP-H microcrystals slightly changed from light gray to dark gray, indicating that oxidation of LFP-H occurred, possibly Fe(II) in LFP-H was transformed to Fe(III) [28]. The slow oxidation of LFP-H during oxidation of R6G might be the reason of the slight decrease in the catalytic activity. In addition, we observed Rabusertib cost that almost no color was changed when LFP-H was stored in an oven at 60°C for one week, indicating that LFH-H is very stable against air oxidation. This high stability of LFP-H in ambient atmosphere is a good advantage for practical

application. Figure BAY 11-7082 ic50 6 Catalytic behavior of the recycled LFP-H particles. Conclusions We report that LFP, which is widely used as an electrode material of a lithium ion battery, can act as an excellent heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst. The LFP microparticles exhibited much better catalytic activities to decompose R6G than a popular Fenton-like catalyst of

magnetite nanoparticles. The LFP microparticles also showed a good recycling behavior as a Fenton-like catalyst. In addition, the catalytic activities of LFP can be improved by increasing the specific surface area, suggesting that the catalytic activity of LFP can be further improved if nanostructured LFP particles can be properly synthesized. We believe that LFP can be practically used as a catalyst due to its high catalytic activity

and a good recycling behavior. Furthermore, LFP may open new application fields if the catalytic property of LFP is combined with the conventional properties that are useful PTK6 as an electrode of a battery. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (2013M2A8A1041415). Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1: Figure S1: FESEM images. (a) FESEM images of LFP synthesized by hydrothermal method with a slow heating rate of approximately 4°C/min. (b) Magnified FESEM image of (a). Figure S2. Compare of LFP-H and LFP-C in catalytic degradation of R6G. Conditions: 3 g/L of catalyst, 6 mL/L of H2O2 (30%), pH=7. Figure S3. N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms of LFP-C and LFP-H. (DOC 1 MB) References 1. Wang JL, Xu LJ: Advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment: formation of hydroxyl radical and application. Crit Rev Environ Sci Tech 2012, 42:251–325.CrossRef 2. Li Y, Sasaki T, Shimizu Y, Koshizaki N: Hexagonal-close-packed, hierarchical amorphous TiO2 nanocolumn arrays: transferability, enhanced photocatalytic activity, and superamphiphilicity QNZ without UV irradiation. J Am Chem Soc 2008, 130:14755–14762.CrossRef 3. Li Y, Sasaki T, Shimizu Y, Koshizaki N: A hierarchically ordered TiO2 hemispherical particle array with hexagonal-non-close-packed tops: synthesis and stable superhydrophilicity without UV irradiation.