Developing an efficient and long-lasting catalyst is of great importance for the reductive degradation of pollutants. Herein, we report a simple co-precipitation method to prepare copper-decorated iron oxide/activated carbon (AC) magnetic catalysts, in which copper-decorated iron oxide nanoparticles are uniformly distributed on coal-derived activated carbon (AC). Both 4-nitrophenol and structurally complex dyes (Rhodamine B and Congo Red) can be degraded by the copper-decorated iron oxide/AC nanocomposites in the presence of sodium borohydride. In particular, 4-nitrophenol can be reduced to 4-aminophenol within 6 minutes at room temperature, and the conversion efficiency remains above 96 % after five cycles, while an external magnetic field easily recovers the catalyst during the cycles. The excellent catalytic activity of copper-decorated iron oxide/AC can be attributed to the synergistic coupling between copper-decorated iron oxide nanoparticles and coal-based activated carbons, the high surface area of the AC layers and the small size of the copper-decorated iron oxide nanoparticles. The properties of low cost, easy recovery, universal catalytic reduction, high activity, and durability make the proposed catalysts promising for a wide range of practical applications.

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