Development of a Sustainable Tungsten and Iron Bimetal-Immobilized SBA-15 Composite for Enhanced Wet Catalytic...

In this study, wet catalytic decomposition of Orange (II) dye was carried out with tungsten and iron bimetal-incorporated mesoporous SBA-15 (W-Fe@SBA-15) under visible light. The synthesized hybrid composite material was characterized by physicochemical methods, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy combined with energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) spectroscopy studies, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and surface property studies to understand the nature of the dye degradation process and for catalytic studies. The maximum degradation of Orange (II) dye measured by a UV-visible spectrophotometer was 99% at a contaminant volume of 2.7 × 10^-4 mol/L and a catalyst quantity of 2 g/L in 140 min reaction time. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), the final products were chemically identified. The mechanistic steps of the process were carried out through a series of experiments. The recyclability of the catalyst added a novel feature for such a heterogeneous catalysis that can reduce secondary pollutants in water with no leaching effect observed.