[Degradation of organic pollutants by photo-Fenton-like system with hematite]

Hematite was used as the catalyst to degrade the rhodamine B and 2,4-dichlorophenol under visible light irradiation. The effect of pH, catalyst dosage and dissolved iron on the degradation efficiency were studied. UV-Vis spectrophotometer, infrared spectrometer, fluorescence spectrophotometry and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) were employed to evaluate the mechanism during the degradation process. The result indicated that RhB could be degraded effectively by the Cata/RhB/H2O2/vis system. The optimum conditions were 0.6 g x L(-1) catalyst; pH 3.0 and 1.5 x 10(-3) mol x L(-1) H2O2. RhB was decomposed after 180 min and 56% of 2,4-DCP was degraded after 24 h by this syetem. Dissolved Fe ion was a relatively weak factor for the catalyst system. The catalyst had excellent stability with little loss of activity after 6 recycling experiments. The degradation process was dominated by the hydroxyl radical (*OH) generated in the heterogeneous Fenton-like system.