Elucidation of Reaction Behaviors in Sonocatalytic Decolorization of Amaranth Dye in Water Using Zeolite Y Co-Incorporated with Fe and TiO2

The Zeolite Y as a support was modified by the incorporating of Fe and TiO2 in one single step using impregnation method. The synergistic effects between those components enhance the catalytic activity for the degradation of amaranth dye under ultrasonic irradiation with output power of 50 W and 40 kHz frequency. Different characterization techniques were used to elucidate the physical and chemical properties of the produced catalysts. The XRD results indicated that the type of titanium precursor significantly effects on the crystallinity of 0.4% Fe/15%TiO2-NaY catalyst. The AFM results detected that the TiO2 formed a layer covered the surface of zeolite while Fe clusters were located close to TiO2. The influence of reaction parameters such as TiO2 and Fe content, pH values, amount of hydrogen peroxide used, catalyst loading and the initial dye concentration were investigated for the decolorization efficiency of amaranth. The maximum decolorization efficiency for 0.4%Fe/15%TiO2-NaY was 100% after 120 min of reaction time with an initial dye concentration of 30 mg/L, 2 g/L of catalyst loading, natural pH about 5.5 and 0.65 mM H2O2.