Journal of Hazardous Materials 300 (2015) 406–414 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hazardous Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhazmat TiO 2 -sludge carbon enhanced catalytic oxidative reaction in environmental wastewaters applications Sunil Athalathil a , Boˇ stjan Erjavec b , Renata Kaplan b , Frank Stüber a , Christophe Bengoa a , Josep Font a , Agusti Fortuny c , Albin Pintar b,∗∗ , Azael Fabregat a,∗ a Departament d’Enginyeria Quimica, ETSEQ, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Paisos Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Catalunya, Spain b Laboratory for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia c Departamentd’Enginyeria Quimica, EPSEVG, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Av. Victor Balaguer s/n, 08800 Vilanova i la Geltru, Catalunya, Spain h i g h l i g h t s • Efficient sludge nano composites (SNCs) fabricated from sludge biomass. • The SNCs enhanced Bisphenol A removal. • Surface modification processes dis- played crystallinity and good surface textures. • The presence of SNC-HD solid exhibit highest photocatalytic activity. g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 9 April 2015 Received in revised form 16 June 2015 Accepted 15 July 2015 Available online 18 July 2015 Keywords: Sludge carbons Wastewater treatment Nano composites Fabrication process Catalytic oxidative reaction a b s t r a c t The enhanced oxidative potential of sludge carbon/TiO 2 nano composites (SNCs), applied as hetero- geneous catalysts in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), was studied. Fabrification of efficient SNCs using different methods and successful evaluation of their catalytic oxidative activity is reported for the first time. Surface modification processes of hydrothermal deposition, chemical treatment and sol- gel solution resulted in improved catalytic activity and good surface chemistry of the SNCs. The solids obtained after chemical treatment and hydrothermal deposition processes exhibit excellent crystallinity and photocatalytic activity. The highest photocatalytic rate was obtained for the material prepared using hydrothermal deposition technique, compared to other nanocomposites. Further, improved removal of bisphenol A (BPA) from aqueous phase by means of catalytic ozonation and catalytic wet air oxidation processes is achieved over the solid synthesized using chemical treatment method. The present results demonstrate that the addition of TiO 2 on the surface of sludge carbon (SC) increases catalytic oxidative activity of SNCs. The latter produced from harmful sludge materials can be therefore used as cost-effective and efficient sludge derived catalysts for the removal of hazardous pollutants. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. ∗ Corresponding author. Fax: + 34 977559667. ∗∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: albin.pintar@ki.si (A. Pintar), azael.fabregat@urv.cat (A. Fabregat). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.07.025 0304-3894/© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.