Carbene Ligand-Doped Fe2O3 Composite for Rapid Removal of Multiple Dyes under Sunlight

Siwei Yang,Hui Zheng,Di Wu,Qiang Sun,Yuanfang Shen,Yichao Zhuang,Weihang Han,Liangchen Chen

doi:10.3390/su132212669

Siwei Yang, Hui Zheng + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212669

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Abstract

Contaminated water due to industrial organic dyes presents a significant challenge to sustainability. As a material of green energy, photocatalysts offer an effective and environmentally friendly way to deal with organic dyes for water treatment. A series of simple and highly efficient iron photocatalysts with carbene ligands were developed, which, under the illumination of sunlight, can rapidly degrade multiple organic dyes in water at room temperature, including rhodamine B (RhB), indigo carmine (IC), methyl blue (MB), and congo red (CR). The field-only surface integral method was carried out to determine the absorption spectrum of photocatalyst particles. Under the optimized experimental conditions which were selected by the orthogonal experiments for four dyes, 0.5a@Fe2O3 and 2c@Fe2O3 demonstrated good stability and photocatalytic activity. These two composite materials not only have the ability to remove 98.0% of the degradation in 10 s, but also maintain high reactivity after a few cycles of repeated use.

Highlights

We revealed that a composite photocatalyst, carbene-doped Fe-based metal Xa@Fe2 O3, can be well excited to generate electron–hole pairs with a prolonged lifetime of photogenerated electrons
The addition of ligands would have a corresponding impact on the morphology and structure of the catalysts and on the final degradation. 2a@Fe2 O3 is in the form of small particles
We have successfully synthesized a series of iron-based photocatalysts with carbene ligands which demonstrate good photocatalytic capabilities to degrade rhodamine B (RhB), congo red (CR), methyl blue (MB), and indigo carmine (IC) under the illumination of sunlight

Summary

Introduction

Only around 5% of industrial and domestic wastewater is treated [1], while most of the rest, which contains toxic and dangerous by-products of industrial production, is directly discharged without treatment. This leads to the serious pollution of soil, rivers, and groundwater. The discharge of untreated dye wastewater is a major factor for natural water pollution [2]. The high content of organic matter in water, such as urea, Sustainability 2021, 13, 12669.

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