The role of some metal ions in enhancement of photocatalytic activity of Fe2O3 V2O5 binary oxide

Abstract

Fe2O3-V2O5 mixed oxides were synthesized with solid-state dispersion (SSD) and coprecipitation methods. In addition, transition metal oxides such as CuO, NiO, and Co3O4 were successfully loaded on the synthesized catalyst (Fe2O3-V2O5) using the SSD method. The composite catalysts were inspected for their photocatalytic activities in degrading 2,4-dichlorophenol under UV light enforcement. The produced samples were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and the Brunauer Emmett Teller method. The addition of transition metal oxides improved the photocatalytic activity of Fe2O3-V2O5 (SSD). 1CuO wt% Fe2O3-V2O5 exhibited the highest percentage of 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation (100%) and the highest reaction rate (1.83 mg/L min) in 30 min. This finding is attributed to the distribution of CuO.