Hematite/Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanofilm for Fenton and Photocatalytic Oxidation of Methylene Blue
Sangbin Lee and
Jae-Woo Park
Additional contact information
Sangbin Lee: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Jae-Woo Park: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-15
Abstract:
Hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 )/graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) nanofilm catalysts were synthesized on fluorine-doped tin oxide glass by hydrothermal and chemical vapor deposition. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses of the synthesized catalyst showed that the nanoparticles of g-C 3 N 4 were successfully deposited on α-Fe 2 O 3 nanofilm. The methylene blue degradation efficiency of the α-Fe 2 O 3 /g-C 3 N 4 composite catalyst was 2.6 times greater than that of the α-Fe 2 O 3 single catalyst under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. The methylene blue degradation rate by the α-Fe 2 O 3 /g-C 3 N 4 catalyst increased by 6.5 times after 1 mM of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) was added. The photo-Fenton reaction of the catalyst, UV, and H 2 O 2 greatly increased the methylene blue degradation. The results from the scavenger experiment indicated that the main reactants in the methylene blue decomposition reaction are superoxide radicals photocatalytically generated by g-C 3 N 4 and hydroxyl radicals generated by the photo-Fenton reaction. The α-Fe 2 O 3 /g-C 3 N 4 nanofilm showed excellent reaction rate constants at pH 3 (K a = 6.13 × 10 −2 min −1 ), and still better efficiency at pH 7 (K a = 3.67 × 10 −2 min −1 ), compared to other methylene blue degradation catalysts. As an immobilized photo-Fenton catalyst without iron sludge formation, nanostructured α-Fe 2 O 3 /g-C 3 N 4 are advantageous for process design compared to particle-type catalysts.
Keywords: hematite; graphitic carbon nitride; photocatalyst; heterojunction; photo-Fenton (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/2866/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/2866/ (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:7:p:2866-:d:341256
Access Statistics for this article
Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu
More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().