Iron nanoparticles supported ordered mesoporous CeO2, an efficient catalyst for photo-Fenton oxidation of phenol under irradiation

Mesoporous CeO2-supported iron nanoparticles were prepared by the hard template method with different iron loading. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, BET, UV-Vis, ICP, SEM-EDX, MET and TPR. The catalysts showed high activity and stability in the photo-Fenton oxidation of aqueous phenol solution using near-ultraviolet irradiation (254 nm) at room temperature and neutral pH. The catalytic performance has been monitored in terms of aromatics and total organic carbon (TOC), and phenol conversion. Also, a comparative study between the CeO2 activity and catalysts was monitored which demonstrates that iron has a synergistic effect in the phenol photo-Fenton oxidation. Moreover, the formation of OH center dot and O-2 center dot radicals accelerates the process by reducing Fe3+ to Fe2+ and Ce4+ to Ce3+ which leads to a total phenol oxidation at short time process. The total phenol conversion was obtained at 15 min with Fe/CeO2(60) and 20 min with Fe/CeO2(20).