Removal of Rhodamine B dye from aqueous solutions using photo-Fenton processes and novel Ni-Cu@MWCNTs photocatalyst

Abstract

Herein, we report the degradation of Rhodamine B dye from aqueous solutions using photo-Fenton and heterogenous photo-catalytic processes with Ni-Cu@MWCNTs. The highly dispersed heterogeneous photocatalyst, Ni-Cu nanoparticles supported on MWCNTs is synthesized via polyol method, characterized by FTIR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) technique, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS). The degradation of Rhodamine B dye via the photo-Fenton process (homogeneous photocatalysis) is reported to be 86% at optimized conditions (pH ~ 3, [H2O2] & [Dye] = 0.12 mM, [Fe2+] = 0.01 mM) while degradation by heterogenous photo-catalyst, NiCu@MWCNTs, at optimized conditions (initial conc. of Rhodamine B dye ~ 0.04 mM, amount of catalyst ~ 0.01 g/50 mL, pH ~ 3 and temp ~ 298 K, reaction time ~ 50 min) is achieved to be 98%.