Effect of the Catalyst Support on Dye Degradation Using Advanced Oxidation Processes Treatment: Application of the Fractional Factorial Design

The present study aims to assess the capacity of natural acidified clay (Ht) and commercial clay (K10) to be used as catalyst supports for the degradation of an azo dye, i.e., Congo Red (CR), using three types of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), namely the heterogeneous Fenton process, the photocatalysis process, and the photo-Fenton process. The two supports were intercalated with iron species using different loadings. The reaction efficiency for each step of the synthesis was confirmed using the nitrogen gas adsorption–desorption method for measuring the surface area and pore volume, as well as the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) technique. In addition, the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements were used to determine the chemical compositions of both clays (Ht and K10).