Efficient Removal of Organic Pollutants with Magnetic Nanoscaled BiFeO₃ as a Reusable Heterogeneous Fenton-Like Catalyst

Abstract

BiFeO(3) magnetic nanoparticles (BFO MNPs) were prepared with a sol-gel method and characterized as a catalyst. It was found that BFO MNPs effectively catalyzed the decomposition of H(2)O(2) into *OH radicals, being confirmed with electron spin resonance spin-trapping technique and other radical probing techniques. The strong H(2)O(2)-activating ability of BFO MNPs showed promising applications in the oxidative degradation of organic pollutants. When BFO MNPs were used as a heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst to degrade Rhodamine B, the apparent rate constant for the RhB degradation at 25 degrees C at pH 5.0 in the BFO MNPs-H(2)O(2) system was evaluated to be 2.89 x 10(-2) min(-1), being about 20 folds of that obtained with Fe(3)O(4) MNPs as the catalyst under similar conditions. Moreover, BFO MNPs were demonstrated to have excellent stability and reusability. The catalytic mechanism of BFO MNPs was also investigated with Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory calculations.