Sonocatalytic rapid degradation of Congo red dye from aqueous solution using magnetic Fe0/polyaniline nanofibers.

Nano-sized magnetic Fe0/polyaniline (Fe0/PANI) nanofibers were used as an effective material for sonocatalytic degradation of organic anionic Congo red (CR) dye. Fe0/PANI, was synthesized via reductive deposition of nano-Fe0 onto the PANI nanofibers at room temperature. Prepared catalyst was characterized using HR-TEM, FE-SEM, XRD, FTIR instruments. The efficacy of catalyst in removing CR was assessed colorimetrically using UV-visible spectroscopy under different experimental conditions such as % of Fe0 loading into the composite material, solution pH, initial concentration of dye, catalyst dosage, temperature and ultrasonic power. The optimum conditions for sonocatalytic degradation of CR were obtained at catalyst concentrations=500mg.L-1, concentration of CR=200ppm, solution pH=neutral (7.0), temperature=30°C, % of Fe0 loading=30% and 500W ultrasonic power. The experimental results showed that ultrasonic process could remove 98% of Congo red within 30min with higher Qmax value (Qmax=446.4 at 25°C). The rate of degradation of CR dye was much faster in this ultrasonic technique rather than conventional adsorption process. The degradation efficiency declined with the addition of common inorganic salts (NaCl, Na2CO3, Na2SO4 and Na3PO4). The rate of degradation suppressed more with increasing salt concentration. Kinetic and isotherm studies indicated that the degradation of CR provides pseudo-second order rate kinetic and Langmuir isotherm model compared to all other models tested. The excellent high degradation capacity of Fe0/PANI under ultrasonic irradiation can be explained on the basis of the formation of active hydroxyl radicals (OH) and subsequently a series of free radical reactions.