Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic evaluation of foreign metal ions incorporated iron oxide/oxyhydroxide

Among the plethora of organic pollutants, pharmaceuticals (antibiotics) and textile dyes are the two biggest categories of underground and surface water pollutants today due to the large overproduction and incorrect disposal. Apart from having poor degradability, dyes are mostly carcinogenic for humans and animals, while consumption of antibiotic-polluted water, even in small concentrations, can cause antibiotic resistance over time. Photodegradation uses inexhaustible and safe energy of the sun to remove these contaminants by creating smaller and non-toxic products. Iron oxide and iron oxyhydroxide materials have received a lot of attention due to their high abundance, low cost, low toxicity, and magnetic properties. Hydrothermal synthesis is one of the most common methods for the preparation of these materials as it is the most powerful one when it comes to changing synthesis conditions to modify samples’ morphologies. The addition of dopants and the use of heterostructures can affect the properties and applications of the materials. Here, iron oxide and iron oxyhydroxide materials are synthesized using hydrothermal method and temperature, synthesis time, and doping concentrations are being varied to determine the effects on size, morphologies, and applicability of these materials. The dopants used are Cu2+, Ni2+, Sn2+, and Sn4+. The samples are characterized by a variety of techniques and Cu-doped samples are further explored for the photodegradation of methylene blue and tetracycline with the use of laboratory-built photoreactor. It was found that Cu α-FeOOH/α-Fe2O3 heterostructures form at 140 °C synthesis temperature, and they exhibit superior photocatalytic activity, degrading 90% of methylene blue in 5 h and 65% of tetracycline in 6 h.

Publisher

University of Galway

Collections

University of Galway Theses (Research Masters Theses)