Fenton-like degradation of direct blue dye using green synthesised Fe/Cu bimetallic nanoparticles

This study relates to synthesis of bentonite-supported iron/copper nanoparticles through the biosynthesis method using eucalyptus plant leaf extract, which were then named E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs. The synthesised E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were examined by a set of experiments involving a heterogeneous Fenton-like process that removed direct blue 15 (DB15) dye from wastewater. The resultant E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmet-Teller analysis, zeta potential analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The operating parameters in batch experiments were optimised using Box-Behnken design. These parameters were pH, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) dosage, E-Fe/Cu@B-NP dosage, initial DB15 concentration and temperature. The results showed that 94.32% of 57.5 mg/l DB15 was degraded within 60 min with an optimum hydrogen peroxide dosage of 7.5 mmol/l, an E-Fe/Cu@B-NP dosage of 0.55 g/l, a pH of 3.5 and a temperature of 50 degrees C. The kinetic study indicated that the DB15 degradation kinetics fit the second-order kinetic model, and the thermodynamic factors proved that the process is non-spontaneous, endothermic and endergonic with an activation energy E (a) of 62.961 kJ/mol.