Bimodal mesoporous α-Fe2O3/SiO2 composite: A highly efficient heterogeneous solar-driven photo-Fenton catalyst

In recent years, an extensive research interest has been focused on photo-Fenton catalysis for oxidative degradation of wide range of organic pollutants including non-biodegradable organic dyes in industrial effluents. The present article demonstrates formerly unexplored, an easy wet chemical, soft template as-sisted sol-gel approach for the synthesis of bimodal mesoporous alpha-Fe2O3/SiO2 composite for its applica-tion as a photo-Fenton catalyst. In this synthesis, a combination of non-surfactant template tartaric acid and an anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) have been employed which produce two differ-ent pore dimensions of 3.1 nm and 5.1 nm in the mesoporous composite. The synthesized mesoporous alpha-Fe2O3/SiO2 composite has surface area as high as 127 m2/g. It exhibits an excellent photo-Fenton dye degradation under natural daylight in an optimized strategy in presence of minimal concentration of H2O2. Thus, the developed mesoporous alpha-Fe2O3/SiO2 composite is likely to be an inexpensive alterna-tive heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst for dye degradation under natural daylight and for wastewater treatment. (c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.