Synthesis and characterization of nano α-Fe2O3/Mn2P2O7 for photocatalytic decomposition of p-xylene: using Box-Behnken design

Abstract

α-Fe2O3/Mn2P2O7 photocatalyst was synthesized by forced hydrolysis and reflux condensation (FHRC) method. In order to fully evaluate of the structure, chemical composition and morphology of synthesized composite, various analyses such as XRD, FT-IR, BET, EDX, SEM were applied. In this research, para-xylene was selected as the model substance for photocatalytic reactions to evaluate catalytic ability. To investigate the effect of parameters and selecting the optimum condition for the understudied process, Box Behnken Design (BBD) due to the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was performed. For this purpose, catalyst concentration, hydrogen peroxide concentration, initial p-Xylene concentration and, pH was selected as important and effective variables. Results showed that the optimized degradation efficiency was close to 96.68% within 90 min. Based on the results, it was found that the initial concentration of p-Xylene had the greatest effect on the removal of contamination. Moreover, it was determined that the photocatalytic efficiency of the synthesized composite is more favorable than the non-supported α-Fe2O3.