Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue by TiO2/CuFe2O4/Fe2O3 Nanocomposite Under Visible Light: Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

Advanced oxidation process is a quickly developing technology used for water and wastewater treatment. In this work, pure TiO2 and magnetic nanocomposite of TiO2/CuFe2O4/Fe2O3 were synthesized for degradation of methylene blue (MB) as an organic pollutant dye. Various analytical techniques consisting of XRD, FESEM, DRS, and VSM were used to characterize the crystalline structure, morphology and properties of the synthesized samples. The XRD analysis revealed that both samples showed anatase phased structure. FESEM results showed that the samples had nanometer sized particles. We gained the bandgap energy of 2.99 and 3.02 eV for pure TiO2 and TiO2/CuFe2O4/Fe2O3respectively. VSM results indicated that the nanocomposite had paramagnetic property that makes the separation and recollection of the photocatalyst from aqueous solution simple and quick. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied for the design of experiments (DOEs) to find the optimized parameters affecting methylene blue (10 ppm concentration) degradation in aqueous environments using synthesized photocatalysts, under visible light. Three independent variables, including two quantitative (reaction time , photocatalyst loading) and one qualitative (photocatalyst type) factors were examined. The experimental results were in acceptable agreement with the RSM model with R2 > 90.29. The photocatalytic degradation of MB was fit by a third-order equation that describes the degradation process very well

کلیدواژه ها:

TiO2 ، CuFe2O4/Fe2O3 ، Photocatalytic Degradation ، Methylene Blue ، Optimization ، Response Surface Methodology