Eco-friendly synthesis of Fe3O4 and its surface fabrication: Application in dye removal-A comparative studies

Abstract

The present work describes comparative studies of Methylene blue, Methyl orange, and Calconcarboxylic acid (MB, MO, and CCA) dyes adsorption in the presence of sunlight using novel sulfonic acid-carbon fabricated iron oxide. The preparation and characterization of the catalysts performed FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDX, VSM, & TG-DTA and reported in the previous paperwork. In this paper, the photocatalytic properties of the prepared catalyst and its intermediate materials were evaluated in the presence of sunlight to remove the dye MO, MB, and CCA. The comparative studies revealed that, the functionalized catalysts (Fe3O4@C-SO3H) excelled better photocatalysis (optimized quantity 30 mg) performance in the sunlight and MWI. The adsorption reaction was monitored by a UV-Vis spectrophotometer with λmax of 664 nm for MB, 590 nm for MO, and 550 nm for CCA. The dye removal in the solution was observed at 95.98% for MB, 82.55% for MO, and 83.7% for CCA in the presence of sunlight. Itâs worth to mention that, the novel photocatalyst core iron oxide prepared by agro-waste extract under dual function concept, where extracted medium used for the preparation of the core shell Fe3O4, and its biochar residue employed for the carbonization. Hence, the method developed more on green chemistry protocol, and the inexpensive catalyst used for dye adsorption phenomenon dominates than the dye degradation.   Research Highlights

Novel synthetic route developed for iron oxide and its functionalized carbon-sulfonic acid preparation.  

The catalysts showed very good adsorption properties for dye colour removal of MB, MO and CCA in sunlight.

The catalysts may be used for the decolourization of waste water.