Effective Sonodegradation of Methylene Blue (MB) Organic Dye by Mil-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4 Nanocomposite Sonocatalyst in Aqueous Solution

Figure 1

Today, organic dye sewages are a main source of water contamination [1,2]. Every year, the estimation demonstrates that up to 15% of dye sewages are evacuated into the surface and ground water supplies [3,4]. The exposure with these dye contaminants even at very low concentrations can be harmful to human and the environment [5]. For this reason, these toxic compounds must be removed from the environment. Recently, the various beneficial methodologies like adsorption, membrane filtration, electrochemical treatment, oxidation, ozonation, photocatalytic and sonocatalytic processes have been implemented for the removal of toxic organic dyes in the polluted aqueous solutions [6-11]. Among the aforementioned methods, the sonochemical process is considered as an effective route for the removal of these types of organic pollutants [12]. Plus, applying the ultrasound irradiation causes the production of the bubbles inside the reaction solution leading to the formation of high pressure and temperature approximately 1000atm and 5000K, respectively and subsequently the production of hot spots [13,14]. Eventually, the produced hot spots can in turn leading to the hydroxyl radical (.OH) and superoxide anion radical (.O2 -) originated from the breakdown of H2O and O2 molecules, respectively. Furthermore, it has been specified that the use of semiconductors catalysts along with the US/H2O2 system provides higher degradation performance in comparison to the H2O2 only and US only. Additionally, different types of catalysts, involving Cr-MIL-101@NiO/13X, InVO4/TiO2, NiGa2O4/CeO2, CoFe2O4/CdS, La/TiO2/Y have been used for the removal of organic dye pollutants via the sonodegradation processes [15-19]. Among these types of reported catalysts, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are considered as new classes of porous compounds that have various applications due to their different properties such as catalysis, nanofluids, chemical sensing and so on [20-22]. On the other hand, the zeolites are introduced as a group of hydrated crystalline aluminosilicate involving alkali and alkaline earth metals [23]. These materials possesses unique properties such as high hydrothermal stability and biocompatibility, large pore volume and high surface area, which is suitable for its use as catalysis, adsorbents and so on [24-26]. Regarding the aforementioned explanations, it is explicitly known that combining the spinel MnFe2O4 nanoparticles with MIL-88(Fe) metal-organic framework in the NaY zeolite framework will produce a magnetically separable and superior nanocomposite catalyst that remarkably facilitate the hole and electron separation. Hence, in the presence work, the MIL- 88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4, nanocomposite sonocatalyst was prepared using the ultrasound assisted-hydrothermal route. The as-prepared nanocomposite was fully characterized via the FESEM, EDAX, FTIR, XRD and BET analyses. Then, the above-mentioned nanocomposite catalyst was assessed for the effective sonodegradation of MB dye from aqueous solution in the presence of the ultrasound (US)/H2O2 system. Besides, the impacts of several parameters like contact time, H2O2 concentration, initial MB concentration and sonocatalyst dosage on the MB degradation were studied. Nevertheless, as far as we know, no study has been done on the sonodegradation reaction in the presence of the MIL-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4/US/H2O2 system in before.

To sum up, MIL-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4 was successfully synthesized by the ultrasound assisted-hydrothermal method. The results revealed that the sonocatalytic degradation of MB was obviously affected by contact time, H2O2 concentration, initial MB concentration and sonocatalyst dosage. The highest 60min at a pH of 7, 4mM of H2O2 concentration, 25mg/L of initial MB concentration and 0.5g/L of MIL-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4 dosage. The sonocatalytic process applying the MIL-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4, US (ultrasound) and H2O2 displayed great potential in treatment of MB. In addition, MIL-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4 could be applicable to the practical application since it showed high stability and recyclability. By this test, MIL-88(Fe)/NaY/MnFe2O4 nanocomposite illustrates a promising candidate for the sonocatalytic degradation in environmental remediation.

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