An activated carbon-supported copper heterogeneous catalyst based on (Cu/AC) was developed using a wetness impregnation process. The effect of preparation conditions on the catalyst's characteristics was examined. This work focuses on two key parameters: impregnation rate and calcination conditions (temperature and time). Catalysts were characterized by means of nitrogen sorptiometry at 77 K, Boehm analysis and pH _pzc analysis. It was found that the catalyst properties and the functional surface groups were affected by the operating conditions. The highest measured surface area, i.e. 1040 m ² /g, was obtained for activated carbon (AC) impregnated with 12% of Cu loading after calcination at 550 °C for 2 h. The effect of adding copper on the surface of activated carbon on its adsorption capacity was also examined. The obtained results showed that after impregnation, the adsorption capacity of activated carbon was improved. Additionally, the performance of the Cu/AC catalyst on nitrobenzene ozonation was investigated. Our results show that the use of Cu/AC for heterogeneous catalytic ozonation enhanced significantly the degradation efficiency of nitrobenzene (NB) compared with simple ozonation and with ozonation catalyzed by AC without metal addition.

In aqueous solutions molecular ozone (O₃) decomposes rapidly into secondary radical or ionic species such as (OH^o,, , …). This decomposition is enhanced by many factors, essentially the pH, the temperature, and the organic or inorganic compounds in the solution. The aim of this work is to study the effect of the addition of granular activated carbon on the rate of ozone decomposition in aqueous solutions containing promoter (P) and inhibitor (Q) mixtures. The activated carbon used is laboratory produced from olive stones. We found that the rate of decomposition of ozone in these conditions is described by a pseudo-first-order kinetic: . Experimental results show that adding 15 mg/L of the olive stones activated carbon (OSAC) enhances the rate constant of the P and Q controlled chain depletion by about a factor of two. We found that the decomposition increases linearly with the solid concentration (W): and that the kinetics are enhanced when the activated carbon specific area increases. We also conclude that the preozonation of the OSAC has no effect on its activity. We note that the temperature has a significant effect on the ozone decomposition rate even in the presence of OSAC. The value of the activation energy in the presence of the OSAC is lower than that obtained in homogeneous decomposition.