Synthesis and Characterization of Iron (III) Oxide Nanomaterials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Congo Red

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis and characterization nano-sized Iron (III) oxide for photochemical degradation of reactive Congo red (CR). The Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were prepared by simple aqueous combustion synthesis method using Fe(NO₃)₃.9H₂O as an oxidant and N₂H₄CO as fuel at 1:1 ratio. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR and Uv-vis Spectroscopy. The synthesized samples were tested as photocatalysts for the decomposition of Congo red dye under UV irradiation. The impact of crystal size, loading catalyst and irradiation time on the rate of decomposition of Congo red dye was investigated. The experimental results show that CR degradation increased with increasing of crystal size, time and amount of loaded catalyst.

Keywords: Characterization, Combustion Synthesis, Congo red, Photocatalysis, and UV irradiation.