High Performance, Non-Toxic, and Cost-Efficient Nanocatalyst for Treatment of Water from Methylene Blue Dye by Synthesis of Silica on Magnetic Activated Carbon

Water and wastewater treatment from hazardous pollutant dyes has attracted great attention these days. Developing degradation methods by using high-performance nanocatalysts became an important issue. In this study, non-toxic, recyclable, and cost-efficient Fe۳O۴/activated carbon (AC)/SiO۲ nanocomposites were synthesized by a rapid and simple method based on the ultrasonic probe. The prepared nanocomposites were characterized by Raman, BET, FT-IR, FESEM, TEM, Zeta potential, and XRD analysis. The successful formation of the Fe۳O۴/AC/SiO۲ nanocomposite structure was confirmed by FT-IR and XRD results. The FESEM and TEM images confirmed that Fe۳O۴ and SiO۲ nanoparticles were synthesized on AC microporous substrate, spherically. Zeta potential analysis showed that Fe۳O۴/AC/SiO۲ nanocomposite had a huge negative surface charge of -۵۰ mV and radical scavenger results showed that the surface electrons played a key role in the degradation process of methylene blue. The dark catalyst ability of Fe۳O۴/AC/SiO۲ nanocatalyst for methylene blue dye degradation was investigated and results showed that the Fe۳O۴/AC/SiO۲ nanocomposite degraded ۱۰ ppm methylene blue completely in ۲ minutes. Based on this research, Fe۳O۴/AC/SiO۲ nanocomposite could be used as high performance, non-toxic, recyclable, and cost-efficient nanocatalyst for the water and wastewater treatment from hazardous methylene blue dye in the simple and fast degradation process.

کلیدواژه ها:

Fe۳O۴/AC/SiO۲ ، Dark catalyst ، Ultrafast degradation ، Wastewater treatment ، Nanocatalyst