A novel floating photocatalyst device based on cloth canvas impregnated with iron oxide

Abstract

In this paper an innovative and versatile design for a catalytic photoreactor is presented. The photoreactor is based on a floating Polypropylene non-woven fabric canvas (NWF) impregnated with particles of a mixture of iron oxides and oxyhydroxides adhered to the surface of microfibers. The canvas was characterized with different techniques including Mössbauer spectroscopy, Raman scattering, FTIR, and SEM. UV-Vis spectroscopy showed that the impregnated particles presented an average gap of 2.2 eV. The activity and efficiency of the photocatalyst was tested by photodegradation of rhodamine-B (Rh-B) and the results showed that the floating photocatalyst has a high catalytic activity and maintains its efficiency even after five reuse tests at intervals of 90 min with a small average residual concentration of 6.2% Rhodamine-B in each reuse cycle.