Eco-friendly and solar light-active Ti-Fe2O3 ellipsoidal capsules’ nanostructure for removal of herbicides and organic dyes

Abstract

In this work, Ti-doped Fe2O3 with hollow ellipsoidal capsules nanostructure has been prepared in a green manner using plant extract (flax seed). This new green hematite nanomaterial has been evaluated as photocatalyst for water treatment by testing its activity for degradation of bromophenol blue dye (BPB) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) herbicide. For a better understanding of the green material properties, a comparison with the pristine Fe2O3 nanospheres previously prepared by the same procedure is included. Structural and optical properties of the green prepared materials are studied. The results revealed the success doping of Ti4+ at Fe3+ site, without forming any of TiO2 phases. It was also found that the Ti doping resulted in the reduction of the band gap of Fe2O3 as well as changing the morphology. The Ti-doped Fe2O3 nanomaterial exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic activity either for BPB dye or for 2,4-D degradation with more than 2 times higher rate than that using pristine Fe2O3.

Synthesis of Fe-TiO2 and Cu-TiO2 Based Materials by Olive Leaves Biotemplating—Application to Hydrogen Production from Glycerol Photoreforming

“…The improvement of photocatalytic activity in hydrogen production from glycerol reforming with these new photocatalysts is not the only applicability of the catalysts. They could be used in CO 2 reduction [ 58 , 59 ], decontamination of water from oxygenated organic compounds [ 59 , 60 ], dyes [ 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ], among other photocatalytic applications [ 63 , 65 , 66 ].…”