Research Article
Photocatalytic performance and photodegradation kinetics
of Fenton‑like process based on haematite nanocrystals for basic dye
removal
Shehab A. Mansour1
· Maha A. Tony1 · Aghareed M. Tayeb2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Abstract
Photo-Fenton’s reagent based on haematite nanocrystals was investigated to oxidize simulated textile wastewater
streams loaded with methylene blue (MB) dye to signify the role of nanocrystals in the Fenton system. Various oxidation
systems were compared such as UV photocatalysis, H2O2, dark Fenton’s reagent and nanohaematite photo-Fenton reaction. Different operating parameters were investigated, and the maximum oxidation rate reached 70% at the optimal
experimental conditions of 40 mg/L nanohaematite, 400 mg/L H2O2 and initial pH at 3.0 within 90 min of reaction time.
Furthermore, temperature increases showed increment in the reaction rate. Also, the reaction kinetics was studied and
the system followed the pseudo-second-order model. Finally, thermodynamic parameters, i.e., ∆G′, ∆H′ and ∆S′, for MB
oxidation with photo-Fenton system were investigated and the data illustrated that the reaction was exothermic with
non-spontaneous nature.
Keywords Methylene blue · Wastewater · Photo-Fenton · Nanomaterial · Haematite
1 Introduction
A huge amount of dye-containing wastewater is produced
during the dyeing processes in different industries, for
example, textile and dying, leather, food processing, cosmetics, plastic and paper industries. Discharge of those
colored wastewater is a major problem for environmental
management particularly in developing countries. [1, 2]
The textile industry is one of the major sources, which discharges large amounts of industrial wastewater. In industrial use, there are nearly 10,000 of different dyes and pigments. Once dyes are released into environment, it causes
coloration of natural water bodies, since it is synthetic aromatic water-soluble and dispersible organic compounds.
Among the different types of dyes, methylene blue (MB),
which is considered as a cationic dye, is used in dyeing,
paint production and wool dyeing [1–3].
The discharges from dying factories including dyes
effluents are hazardous chemicals. It is well recognized
that dyes effluents undergo water pollution because they
are highly toxic and carcinogenic. Those dyes cause damage to the aquatic environment by chemical changes as
well as biological changes. The dissolved O2 is consumed
and thus disturbs the aquatic ecosystem. Subsequently,
there will be a challenge for the existence of fishes and
other lives in wide spread [4].
There are various conventional chemical and biological
methods to remove dyes from the water. However, high
expenses make these methods limited and unfavorable
in developing countries. However, these processes result
in concentrated sludges which require further processing and disposal. In addition, conventional treatment
processes have difficulty in fully removing the pollutants
* Shehab A. Mansour, shehab_mansour@yahoo.com | 1Advanced Materials/Solar Energy and Environmental Sustainability (AMSEES)
Laboratory, Basic Engineering Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom 32511, Egypt. 2Chemical
Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Minia, Egypt.
SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:265 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0286-x
Received: 7 November 2018 / Accepted: 19 February 2019 / Published online: 26 February 2019
Vol.:(0123456789)
Research Article
SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:265 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0286-x
from such wastewater. Moreover, it is not favorable for low
efficiency and low reaction rate [5].
Abundant research and investigations have been carried out in different part of the world for the search of
different methods for treatment suitable to remove dyes
from wastewater in a reliable cost. Such methods may
include the chemical oxidation processes such as the oxidation by ozone or combination of UV illumination and
ozone and H2O2, but they are expensive for treating such
raw textile wastewater. Furthermore, it is hard to remove
color [6, 7]. In this context, the development of new processes for wastewater treatment in order to degrade these
compounds in textile industry effluents is very important.
An extensively studied alternative is the use of advanced
oxidation process (AOP). Fenton’s reagent is one of AOPs
which is based on the formation of high active groups,
namely hydroxyl radicals, which are responsible for oxidizing pollutants to smaller and less contaminating molecules or even mineralizing them by turning them into
CO2, H2O and inorganic ions from atoms [8–14].
Fenton’s reagent process is one of the methods that
are applied to significantly reduce the concentration of
dye in wastewater. For instance, Rahman et al. [5] applied
such reagent for the treatment of commercial textile dye
named malachite green. The oxidation of methylene
blue by Fenton’s reagent was achieved by Liu et al. [15].
El Haddad et al. [6] treated azo dye (Reactive Yellow 84)
using Fenton’s reagent. Also, Fenton-like reagent was used
in treating the Amaranth Red [16]. However, Khan et al.
[7] investigated the photocatalytic degradation of MB in
wastewater. The process is a radical reaction, which generates hydroxyl radicals that are capable of oxidizing even
the most resistant pollutants present in the wastewater.
The main advantages of the method include high oxidation efficiency, inexpensive and easily available substrates
and simple procedure. The major reaction in this process
includes Fenton reaction, photolysis of hydrogen peroxide
and photoreduction of ferric ion in order to produce ·OH
radical as illustrated in the following equation [17]:
Fe2+ + H2 O2 → ⋅OH + Fe3+ + OH−
(1)
Novelty in the oxidation of pollutants by the Fenton
method is running it with the participation of iron nanocompounds. The presence of nanoparticles has an influence on the oxidation of many compounds present in
water. With the use of iron nanocompounds, the removal
of trichloroethylene [18], phenol [19], olefins [20], humic
acids [21], antibiotics [22] and chlorophenols [23] was
investigated. The presence of nanoparticles affects also
the oxidation of dyestuff in water solutions, namely AB24
dye and industrial wastewater [24]. However, according to
the literature, there is a lack in applying it for MB dyestuff
wastewater effluents.
Vol:.(1234567890)
In the present investigation, haematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 )
nanocrystalline powder was synthesized using low-cost
simple sol–gel technique. Based on such nanopowder as photocatalysis, UV light augmented with nanohaematite Fenton’s reagent (NHFR) was used to treat MB
dye-containing wastewater. The NHFR parameters were
investigated, and the process was compared with other
treatment processes.
2 Materials and methods
Nanocrystalline Fe 2O 3 powder was synthesized using
sol–gel route. The used procedure was reported
elsewhere [25] by using ferric chloride hexahydrate
(FeCl 3·6H 2O), methanol alcohol and diethanolamine
[HN (CH2CH2OH)2, DEA] as a precursor salt, solvent and
chelating agent, respectively. Furthermore, the final
product of Fe2O3 nanopowder was examined and confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscope and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) according to a preliminary investigation. The
characterization of the synthesized powder confirmed
the formation of α-Fe2O3 in nanosize with rhombohedral
structure [25].
Methylene blue (MB) degradation was studied in
the presence of haematite nanocrystals under UV irradiation. The photo-Fenton’s reagents were prepared
by adding different doses of hydrogen peroxide (30%)
into the synthesized haematite nanopowder. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared photo-Fenton was
carried by the degradation of MB aqueous solution. The
pH values of (500 mL) water dye solutions were adjusted
to the desired value by means of 5 N solution of sulfuric acid using a digital pH meter model type pH2005.
Prior to the UV irradiation, the desired amount of the
nano-Fenton’s reagent was dispersed in the MB aqueous
solution in dark at RT for 2 min to reach adsorption–desorption equilibrium using magnetic stirrer. Thereafter,
the reaction is subjected to the UV illumination using
UV-A, 15-W lamp, enclosed in a transparent glass tube
for UV light, and protected in a cover from a stainless
steel. The solution is passed through the UV light during
the tubular reactor, as shown in Fig. 1. The reaction mixture in that tubular reactor was circulated using a variable speed-dosing pump. At different time intervals, the
treated water dye solutions were centrifuged by TDL 16B
centrifuge type, to remove the remaining nanopowder.
The experiments with the collected solutions were conducted using spectrophotometer (UV-1601, Shimadzu,
Model TCC-240A, Japan) to monitor the absorption of
the maximum absorbance peak of MB at 664 nm.
Research Article
SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:265 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0286-x
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
C/Co
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
Dark Fenton
Photo-Fenton
H2O2+UV
UV
0.2
0.1
0.0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Time/min
Fig. 2 Comparison of different degradation systems on MB removal
Fig. 1 Schematic representation of a treatment steps
3 Results and discussions
3.1 Methylene blue degradation
3.1.1 Comparison of different degradation systems
Firstly, preliminary experiments were conducted to check
the H2O2/UV treatment using H2O2 different doses in a
wide range from 100 to 2000 mg/L. It was found that the
removal rate is very low and increases with increasing the
reagent doses up to 200 mg/L. The obtained removal percentage are 2 and 10% for 100 and 200 mg/L, respectively.
In contrary, the decrease in the removal was achieved
which reached 3 and 6% for 400 and 1000 mg/L, respectively. In addition, the 2000 mg/L of the peroxide shows
no removal at all. This occurrence could be explained as
follows: (1) At low initial H2O2 concentration relatively ·OH
radicals were formed for dye oxidation and thus the reduction in the removal rate. Though, by increasing peroxide
concentration, more ·OH radicals were generated upon
its photodissociation; (2) photolysis of H2O2 produces ·OH
radicals which react with the dye molecules; however,
excess H2O2 and high ·OH concentration result in a competitive reaction resulting a reduction in the dye removal.
In other words, the generated ·OH mostly reacts with the
excess peroxide and produces HO2, which are less reactive
than ·OH and decreasing the overall reaction rate [26].
For the object of investigating and comparing the
performances of the photo-Fenton system and different degradation processes, four experiments were
separately conducted in the treatment of wastewater
contaminated with MB. Figure 2 gives the comparison of
different degradation systems with the performance of
NHFR using the UV illumination. Fenton’s reagent doses
used were: [Fe3+] = 40 mg/L; [H2O2] = 400 mg/L, and the
starting pH value of the MB wastewater was adjusted at
3 for 10 ppm MB dye solution concentration. Investigation of the results illustrates that the UV photolysis without the Fenton’s reagent addition only completed a 26%
reduction after more than 2 h in the MB concentration.
Nevertheless, the sole use of Fenton’s reagent achieved a
MB reduction of 37%. However, when H2O2 was used for
treatment (400 mg/L), only 3% of removal was reached.
Obviously, the OH radicals are generated through the
reaction between the Fe2+ and H2O2 which plays a vital
role in the MB degradation process [27, 28].
As reported in the literature [3], MB dye consists of
aromatic compound and Fenton’s reagent is proved to
be an efficient method in the destruction of such those
aromatic compounds. The destruction is summarized as
follows: The hydroxyl radicals are attacking those aromatic rings, thus opening the rings and producing reaction intermediates, which are eventually transformed
to harmless end products such as CO2 and H2O. Additionally, augmentation of the UV radiation the Fenton’s
reagent (namely photo-Fenton process) led to more pronounced degradation of MB about 84%. However, the
processes that use UV radiation in conjunction with the
nanocrystals as the source of chemical reagents obtain
better results since higher hydroxyl radicals were generated which are mainly responsible for organics oxidation.
These remarks are in agreement with that presented by
Galvao et al. [29], Moraes et al. [30] and Tony and Mansour [10].
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3.1.2 Effect of Fenton’s reagent parameters
Photo-Fenton’s process is highly sensitive to the initial H2O2, iron catalyst concentration and pH value. This
reagent is extremely producer of ·OH radicals, and the
reaction rate is limited by the ·OH generation. Traditionally, hydroxyl radical has been viewed as the workhorse
of hydrogen peroxide oxidation systems. Thus, the main
source of OH radicals and oxygen depends on the hydrogen peroxide. Figure 3a shows the effect of hydrogen peroxide increase on the MB removal at constant pH 3 and
Fe3+ of 40 mg/L. The results show that the degradation
rate of MB increases with an increase in initial H2O2 concentration from 100 to 400 mg/L, but in excess of about
400 mg/L, the H2O2 dose of 1000 mg/L, plot of the reaction
rate curve is almost horizontal. This could be illustrated
that the presence of H2O2 beyond the ratio with Fe3+ does
not improve the MB degradation. According to Murry and
Parson [31], hydrogen peroxide may also serve as a scavenger of OH radicals when it will be in excess. These results
of effect of increasing H2O2 on the degradation system are
in accordance with the previous results obtained by Tony
et al. [13] in the treatment of oily wastewater.
The production of OH radicals from H2O2 is catalyzed
by Fe3+ and thus depends on the concentration of the
100 mg/L
200 mg/L
400 mg/L
1000 mg/L
2000 mg/L
C/Co
0.989
0.946
0.903
0.860
(c)
20 mg/L
40 mg/L
60 mg/L
80 mg/L
C/Co
0.84
0.56
0.28
(b)
0.00
pH 2
pH 3
pH 4
pH 8
C/Co
0.84
0.56
0.28
(a)
0.00
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
Time/min
Fig. 3 Effect of photo-Fenton’s parameters on MB degradation (operating parameters [MB concentration] = 10 mg/L; flow
rate = 25 mL/min), a effect of H2O2, b effect of Fe3+, c effect of pH
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catalyst as shown in Fig. 3b. Photo-Fenton treatment
was carried out at different Fe3+ dosages (20–80 mg/L)
while the pH (3.0) and the H2O2 dosage (400 mg/L) were
maintained constant. The influence of the Fe3+ dosage
has a positive effect on degradation of MB, while above
40 mg/L the excess of Fe 3+ renders the reaction rate.
Indeed, the UV radiation proved to be very efficient in
the H2O2 utilization so that the addition of ferrous ion
did not lead to a further improvement. The limiting reagent for photo-Fenton’s process corresponds to the ferrous ions, and it is present in much lower concentration
than hydrogen peroxide. The catalyst is most efficiently
used in the system. These results clearly demonstrate
the advantage of the photo-Fenton process. Due to the
low of Fe3+, the addition of Fe3+ is strongly reduced in
the produced iron sludge [7, 13]. Therefore, nanoheamatite is significantly applied as the catalyst source to
substitute the classic iron source in the Fenton system
for decreasing the iron amount used with a high surface
area reagent.
Fenton process has a typically sharp, preferred pH
region in which it is optimally operated. The pH value influences the generation of OH radicals and thus the activity
of oxidation, the speciation of iron, and hydrogen peroxide
decomposition. Moreover, the oxidation potential of OH
radicals decreases with increasing pH.
Figure 3c illustrates the pH effect on MB removal in the
presence of NHFR. It is observed that, by increasing the pH
of the dye solution from 2 to 3, there is an increase in the
removal percent. This phenomenon of the increasing trend
of MB removal with increasing the initial pH of the solution
is dependent on the nature of the adsorbent. However,
at lower pH, the % removal of MB was 64%. Interestingly,
there is an increased trend in the removal rate at higher
pH 3.0. More significant enhancement in the % removal
of MB is achieved at pH 3.0 (97.5%). For pH values above
3 such as 4 and 8, the degradation strongly decreases as
Fe3+-complexes precipitate. This is quite similar to the previous reports in which it was an optimum pH of 3 [32, 33].
As reported in the literature [34], the production yield
of the OH radicals in the pH range of 2–4 is highest. This
could be explained by reduction in the reaction rate.
Organometallic complex is produced which helps in the
regeneration of H2O2 rather than the production of the
hydroxyl radicals. Besides, the presence of inorganic carbon in wastewater also scavenges the hydroxyl radical production [35]. Therefore, controlling the pH in the Fenton’s
system to the acidic conditions increases the OH radicals
production. Thus, the optimum Fenton’s reagent conditions are pH 3.0, H2O2 400 mg/L and Fe3+ 40 mg/L. However, further research should be conducted to overcome
the acidic pH effluents after the Fenton’s reaction to reach
a commercial application.
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3.1.3 Effect of initial dye concentration
1.1
3.1.4 Effect of flow rate
In order to investigate the flow rate on the removal of MB,
different flow rates were applied and the results are presented in Fig. 5. The results in the figure reveal that the
reduction efficiency decreases with increase in the flow
rate of the dye solution. Almost 13% of MB was removed
at flow rate 15 mL/min, and then, it is increased to 75% for
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
C/Co
Removal efficiency greatly depends on the initial concentration of solution of pollutant. For estimating the effect
of initial dye concentration on the reaction rate, different
500 mL solution of including different initial MB concentrations was treated under UV radiation after the pH was
adjusted at 3.0 and then 40 mg/L of haematite nanopowder was added; subsequently, the Fenton’s reaction was
initiated with the addition of 400 mg/L H2O2 taking flow
rate 25 mL/min as constant values. The graph in Fig. 4
shows the comparison of different degradation levels from
5 mg/L to 40 mg/L. It shows the decrease in the removal
efficiency with increasing initial concentrations, and it is
observed the removal rate of MB is 93, 84, 48 and 20% for
initial MB concentrations of 5, 10, 20 and 40 mg/L, respectively. Increasing removal % of MB with decreasing initial
MB concentration can be attributed to the enhancement
of UV light penetration, resulting in enhanced concentration removal. This observation of the increase in the pollutant removal rate with decreasing the initial pollutant
concentration in the photocatalytic oxidation reactions
was previously described by Najjar et al. [36] in the photocatalytic treatment of the nitrophenol.
0.6
15 mL/min
25 mL/min
40 mL/min
70 mL/min
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Time/min
Fig. 5 Effect of flow rate on the NHFR process (operating parameters [Fe3+] = 40 mg/L; [H2O2] = 400 mg/L; pH = 3)
flow rate 25 mL/min, whereas 33% and 20% of MB were
removed at flow rate 40 and 70 mL/min, respectively. The
role in increasing the degradation rate of pollutant with
increasing the flow rate is valid up to a certain limit, and
then, the reaction becomes slower. These phenomena
could be illustrated by the fact that once the flow rate
was slow, MB in the sample solution got more contact
time with UV radiation induced. However, the flow rate
of 25 mL/min was chosen to be the optimum because it
makes the removal process higher. These results accord
with the findings of [37], who investigated the photo-Fenton treatment of a petroleum refinery wastewater.
3.1.5 Effect of temperature
5 ppm
10 ppm
20 ppm
40 ppm
1.0
C/Co
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Time/min
Fig. 4 Effect of initial MB concentration (operating parameters
[Fe3+] = 40 mg/L; [H2O2] = 400 mg/L; pH = 3, flow rate = 25 mL/min)
The effect of the treatment temperature on the mineralization of MB was examined. Four different temperatures
between 25 and 80 °C were tested on the removal rate of
MB. Other experimental conditions except temperature
were kept same. It could be understood from the results
in Fig. 6 that the removal efficiencies increased as the temperature increased. As temperature increased from 25 to
80 °C, the reduction rate increased and showed 44, 49, 94
and 97%, at only 30 min of reaction time for temperatures
25, 40, 50 and 80 °C, respectively. Thus, higher temperature
was most favorable for pollutant removal. The increase in
rate with the increase in the solution temperature is illustrated by the increase in the collision frequency of molecules in solution as the temperature increased [38]. This
investigation confirms the importance of the solar NHFR
when using direct photolysis of solar radiation as the efficiency will be increased.
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SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:265 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0286-x
Fig. 6 Effect of temperature on the NHFR process (operating
parameters [Fe3+] = 40 mg/L; [H2O2] = 400 mg/L; pH = 3)
3.2 Kinetics and thermodynamic investigation
To follow the kinetic MB dye removal using photo-Fenton
reaction, different contact time ranges from 0 to 60 min
under isothermal condition at various temperatures (25,
40 and 50 °C) were studied. According to the literature,
the most common following reaction rates in wastewater treatment are zero, first and second reaction orders as
shown in Eqs. (1–3), respectively [39–41].
( )
dc
= −k0
(2)
dt
(
dc
dt
)
= −k1 C
(3)
(
dc
dt
)
= −k2 C 2
(4)
where C is the concentration of MB, Ct is the concentration of MB at time t, C0 is MB initial concentration, and t is
the reaction time. Additionally, k0, k1 and k2 represent the
pseudo-kinetic rate constants of zero-, first- and secondorder reaction kinetics, respectively.
Thus, those three models were checked for MB degradation using the photo-Fenton’s reagent by plotting the
linear regression analysis of the integration of Eqs. (2–3)
to investigate the order of reaction. The results given in
Table 1 indicate the regression coefficient, R2, is higher
for the pseudo-second order of reaction. Furthermore,
pseudo-second-order kinetic reaction constant, k 2, is
sensitively affected by temperature which is increased
from 0.0023 to 0.042 L mg−1 min−1 by the temperature
increase. This could be illustrated by the increase of
hydroxyl radicals yield by increasing temperature [42].
Moreover, the reaction half-time, t1/2 [43], is affected also
by the temperature increase.
Ultimately, it is concluded that MB removal by nanoFenton’s reagent is following the second-order reaction
model under various investigated temperatures. This
findings in accordance with Samet et al. [44], El Haddad
et al. [6] and Youssef et al. [45] in the treatment of contaminated wastewater. However, Bounab et al. [41] found
the reaction follows the first-order kinetics on the treatment using electro-Fenton treatment process.
To further understand the nano-Fenton’s reagent on
MB degradation, thermodynamic parameters were estimated. In this point, activation energy (Ea) of MB degradation can be calculated
from the Arrhenius equation
−Ea
[46, 47] (k2 = Ae RT ), where R is the gas constant, T is the
temperature, and A is the pre-exponential factor that is
considered to be constant with respect to temperature.
Plotting ln k2 versus 1/T gives a straight line whose slope
is −Ea ∕R . Figure 7 shows such a relation for the MB photodegradation process under the investigated temperatures. The obtained activation energy of the process was
found to be 79.01 KJ mol−1. Additional thermodynamic
parameters such as the enthalpy of activation (∆H′), the
entropy of activation (∆S′) and the free energy of activation (∆G′) [47] were estimated and are listed in Table 2.
The positive values of ∆H′ throughout this investigation
indicate that reaction is exothermic. Besides, ∆G′ exhibited positive values; this means at high temperature the
reaction is non-spontaneous with a negative entropy of
activation [47].
Table 1 Kinetic parameters of MB photodegradation by nano-Fenton’s reagent under various temperatures
T/°C
Pseudo-zero order
−1
25
40
50
Pseudo-first order
2
k0/min
t1/2/min
R
0.089
0.092
0.129
0.45
0.46
0.63
0.76
0.76
0.51
Vol:.(1234567890)
−1
−1
Pseudo-second order
2
k1/mg L min
t1/2/min
R
0.014
0.015
0.044
49.50
46.51
15.64
0.88
0.86
0.61
−1
−1
% Removal
2
k2/mg L min
t1/2/min
R
0.0023
0.0026
0.0346
43.48
38.46
2.89
0.94
0.93
0.82
62.0
96.0
96.7
SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:265 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0286-x
Research Article
References
Fig. 7 Plot of ln k2 versus 1000/T for the investigated photodegradation reaction. The solid lines represent least-squares fitting
Table 2 Thermodynamic parameters of MB photodegradation by
nano-Fenton’s reagent
T/°C ln k2
25
40
50
Ea/kJ mol−1 ∆G′/kJ mol−1 ∆H′/kJ mol−1 ∆S′/J mol−1
− 6.07
− 5.95 79.01
− 3.36
88.03
92.27
88.35
48.79
48.67
48.59
− 131.68
− 139.31
− 123.12
4 Conclusion
Haematite nanocrystalline powder can be readily prepared
using sol–gel technique. NHFR is achieved by applying
haematite nanoparticles rich in hydrogen peroxide shows
high efficiency in MB degradation. Furthermore, the effect
of reaction Fenton’s reagent parameters such as pH effect,
Fe3+ and hydrogen peroxide concentrations is achieved.
The optimum pH value has been found to be 3, while
the reaction rate increased with increases in the Fe3+ and
hydrogen peroxide reagent doses until a certain limit of
40 and 400 mg/L, respectively. The effect of initial MB, flow
rate and temperature was also monitored. The obtained
results of the investigated NHFR confirm the important
role of nanoparticles in photo-oxidation of organic pollutants. Moreover, the study of photo-oxidation reaction
under various temperatures referred to that the reaction
is non-spontaneous and the used reagent could be more
efficient under direct solar radiation.
Compliance with ethical standards
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