Nano cotton-shape mesoporous (NCSM) modified by Fe3O4: Green, magnetic and reusable catalytic system for dechlorization of bromothymol blue (BTB)

Authors

• Hamid Aliyan ¹

• Department of Chemistry, Shahreza Branch, Islamic Azad University, 86145-311, Iran.

Abstract

Fe₃O₄-containing cotton-like mesoporous silica system (Fe₃O₄@NCSM) was studied with regard to its performance towards the photodecolorization of bromothymol blue (BTB) aqueous solution. The surface properties of the functionalized catalyst were analyzed by a series of characterization techniques like FTIR, XRD, BET, SEM and TEM. The N₂ Adsorption–desorption analysis shows that the mesostructure of silica remains intact after Fe₃O₄ modifications, while the spectral technique shows the successful encapsulating of the neat Fe₃O₄ inside the porous silica support. The optimum values of the experimental parameters which affect the degradation efficiency were obtained as: 0.15 g L⁻¹ of the photocatalyst, 25 ppm dye concentration and
pH 5.6.
 

Keywords

• Fe3O4
• Heterogeneous photocatalysis
• Nano cotton-shape mesoporous (NCSM)
• Bromothymol blue (BTB)