Effect of preparation parameters of iron oxide nanoparticles on the fenton catalytic activity for the degradation of dye.

Abstract

Water polluted by recalcitrant organics, such as methylene blue (MB), can be treated with the Fenton reaction. The Fenton reaction degrades the pollutants through catalytic oxidation. Unsupported iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) were used as catalysts in this study. Iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesised using a precipitation-oxidation method and effects of various preparation parameters on the shape, size and catalytic activity of the iron oxide nanoparticles were studied. Parameters investigated include preparation temperature, type and amount of precipitating agent. The precipitating agents used are sodium hydroxide, tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAOH), tetraethyl ammonium hydroxide (TEAOH) and ethylamine. The iron oxide nanoparticles were found to be spherical for most of the preparation conditions as determined by TEM. However, irregular flower-like shapes (hexagonal with rod extensions) were obtained when the amounts of the TMAOH and TEAOH bases were more than the stoichiometric amounts. The nature and amount of precipitating agent also influenced the degree of particle agglomeration and growth, with an increase in alkyl chains in the base giving lesser agglomeration. The preparation temperature did not influence the nanoparticles’ size when NaOH was used as a precipitating agent. In contrast, when an amine was used as a precipitation agent, caused a slight increase in the size of the nanoparticles. Different crystal phases like hematite, magnetite, maghemite and goethite-hematite mixture were identified in the X-ray diffractograms. UV-Vis spectroscopy showed that all the catalysts were red-shifted except for B3 sample, which was blue-shifted from the bulk materials. The highest catalytic activities were obtained when NaOH was used as a precipitation agent instead of amine since catalyst has shown to contain the traces amounts of the base used on the surface. The lower catalytic activities for the catalysts prepared using amines may be due to amines adsorbed on the surface and blocking the catalytic active sites. FTIR spectra showed the presence of trace amounts of ammine functional groups on the nanoparticles No correlation was found between the crystallite size and the Fenton catalytic activity of the catalyst. In the same vein, operational parameters such as the amount of H2O2 and temperatures did not show a direct effect on the Fenton catalytic efficiency. Kinetic studies show that the degradation of methylene blue followed the first-order models for all the catalysts prepared with NaOH. Overall, the study shows that different preparation parameters had an effect on the size, shape, phase and the catalytic performance of the synthesised IONPs.