The Effect of Fe-Loading and Calcination Temperature on the Activity of Fe/TiO2 in Phenol Degradation

In this research work, iron modified titanium dioxide photocatalyst was synthesized by the sol-gel method. The catalyst is characterized by FT-IR, XRF, and TGA techniques. Since the activity of Fe/TiO2 is highly affected by the loading of Fe, our major purpose of this work was focused on the role of this factor. Moreover, the effect of calcination temperature, which was also of high importance, was studied in this work. FT-IR results indicated the existence of a peak in the range of 1100-1200 corresponding to Ti-O-Fe bonds. The intensity of this peak is proportional to the amount of iron, which is incorporated into the TiO2 lattice. Optimum Fe-loading was specified by FT-IR and it was measured by XRF. In order to evaluate the catalytic activity of Fe/TiO2, a synthetic wastewater of phenol was irradiated by the UV lamp (757.38 mW/cm), Fe/TiO2 with the dosage of 0.5 g/L was applied as the catalyst and H2O2 (12.5 mL, 30% wt. /wt.) was added as an oxidizing agent. Experimental results proved, the optimum condition for phenol degradation process over Fe/TiO2 is as follows: Fe loading in the TiO2 lattice: Fe2O3/TiO2 is 0.27%, calcination temperature: 600°C, and irradiation time of 600 min. Under this circumstance, 98.26% of the phenol in water was decomposed.