Application of UV-A light Operating Photoreactor for Green Degradation of Direct Blue 15 through the Photo-Fenton-like process: Effects and Box-Behnken Optimization

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 University of Baghdad, Al-Khwarizmi College of Engineering, Baghdad, Iraq

2 Environment and Water Directorate, Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract

In this research, green catalytic iron/copper nanoparticles loaded on bentonite were prepared by the green method using eucalyptus leaves extract as a reducing and capping agent (E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs). The characterization methods were employed on E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs, the NPs results were porous with a spherical shape when analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the BET analysis showed that the surface area of particles was 28.589m 2 /g. The functional groups of the E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were also verified using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Degradation of direct blue 15 dye (DB15) was then investigated by E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs through photo-Fenton-like. The parameters such as pH, H 2 O 2 dosage, initial DB15 concentration, and UV-intensity were studied through batch experiments and optimized through response surface methodology (RSM) using the Box-Behnken design (BBD). The results showed that the dye removal reached 100% within 60 minutes with optimum, pH 3.5, H 2 O 2 dosage of 7.5 mmol/L, DB15 concentration 100 mg/L and UV-intensity of 15 W/m 2. The kinetic study indicated that the DB15 degradation kinetic was fitted to the second-order kinetic model.

Keywords