Degradation of a textile dye, Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G), by heterogeneous sonophotoFenton process in the presence of Fe-containing TiO2 catalysts.

In this study, degradation of Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) was investigated with ultrasound-assisted heterogeneous photoFenton process by iron-containing TiO2 catalysts. The catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method and characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, nitrogen adsorption, and ICP-AES measurements. Almost complete color removal (99.9 %) was achieved after a reaction time of 90 min while chemical oxygen demand (COD) could be removed by 24 % only with the 1 wt% iron-containing TiO2 catalyst. Initial color removal after 15 min of reaction and total COD abatement after 90 min of reaction decreased with increasing calcination temperature of the catalyst from 573 to 973 K. This indicated that the catalytic activity of the catalyst depend on the percentage of anatase phase in the TiO2, which was decreased with increasing calcination temperature.