JOURNAL OF NANOPARTICLE RESEARCH, vol.23, no.8, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
Finding new catalysts and improving the characteristics of existing catalysts are major research issues for boosting dye degradation efficiency. For this purpose, iron vanadates have been prepared by the solution combustion method using oxalyldihydrazide (ODH) and glycine (GLY) as fuel. The surface properties of catalysts were altered, and the degradation efficiency of methylene blue (MB) was improved, depending on the synthesis process and fuel type. When the ODH-assisted FeVO4 has irregular morphology, the GLY-assisted FeVO4 has 100-200-nm uniform nanoparticles with a surface area of 21.96 g/m(2) and it is performed as an excellent heterogeneous nanocatalyst for Fenton-like degradation of MB using H2O2 under sunlight. The narrow bandgap allows the adsorption of light and enhances photocatalytic activity. After the optimization of the catalyst amount, H2O2 concentration, and degradation time, the degradation efficiency of MB was found to be nearly 100% with high reusability. The process has a high-rate constant of 0.0304 min(-1) and the possible reaction mechanism has been proposed using GC-MS. The GLY-assisted FeVO4 can be a potentially powerful and reusable heterogeneous catalyst for the other contaminants.