Solar-Fenton Heterogeneous System for the Removal of Persistent Pollutants in Aqueous Medium Using Zeolite Y-Fe as a Catalyst

The heterogeneous Solar-Fenton process is an ecological and promising strategy for the removal of hazardous pollutants in aqueous media. Therefore, the aim of this study was to prepare and characterize a heterogeneous solid iron catalyst supported on zeolite Y for the degradation of tartrazine yellow (TY) food coloring under natural sunlight. The catalyst was produced by wet ion exchange and characterized by the physisorption of N2, XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, FT-IR, zeta potential and bandgap. The catalyst efficiency was evaluated through the degradation of the TY dye in a batch mode with the evaluation of some of the main operational parameters. The presence of iron in zeolite Y was confirmed by XRD, MET and EDX techniques, and by the reduction of specific area and pore volume after ion exchange. The FT-IR proved the occurrence of an ion exchange process. The oxidative system formed by the Fe-Y catalyst and natural sunlight was extremely efficient, with removal of approximately 98% in 120 min under the experimental conditions: [TY]0 = 10 mg L-1, [H2O2]0 =200 g L-1, Dosage of Y-Fe = 1.5 g L-1 and pH = 3.0. It was possible to recover the catalyst and use it in five reuse cycles, showing its stability and application potential of this catalyst in heterogeneous Solar-Fenton systems with sunlight.