The efficient, fast and facile decolorization of organic dyes homogeneously catalyzed by iron octacarboxylic phthalocyanine

Abstract

To remove the harmful dye contaminants via an efficient, facile and low energy consumption route is a grave challenge in current chemical industry. Though the great progresses of TiO2 photocatalysis and enzymatic degradation have been witnessed, the strategy for satisfying the above requirements is still worth exploring. Herein, we develop a biomimetic catalysis strategy for the fast decolorization of organic dyes catalyzed by iron octacarboxylic phthalocyanine (FeOCPc) complexes assisted with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (BuOOH). Methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) were used as the model pollutants and experimental results show that the decolorization degree of 25 mg/L MO could achieve 100% within 20 min and 80% for 25 mg/L MB within 30 min. The molar ratio for FeOCPc/MO and FeOCPc/MB is 0.146 and 0.142, respectively. Interestingly, other than the high-valent iron-oxygen active species, tert-butyl peroxyl radicals and hydroxyl radicals were detected as the active species generated during the catalytic oxidation by the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurement. This work not only provides a distinctive biomimetic catalysis system of FeOCPc–BuOOH for the fast bleaching of dye pollutants, but also proposes the new insight on a mechanism based on the cooperation catalysis of iron-oxygen active species, tert-butyl peroxyl radicals and hydroxyl radicals.