The role of some metal ions in enhancement of photocatalytic activity of $Fe_2O_3–V_2O_5$ binary oxide

Abstract

$Fe_2O_3–V_2O_5$ mixed oxides were synthesized with solid-state dispersion (SSD) and coprecipitation methods. In addition, transition metal oxides such as CuO, NiO, and Co3O4 were successfully loaded on the synthesized catalyst $(Fe_2O_3–V_2O_5($using the SSD method. The composite catalysts were inspected for their photocatalytic activities in degrading 2,4-dichlorophenol under UV light enforcement. The produced samples were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and the Brunauer–Emmett– Teller method. The addition of transition metal oxides improved the photocatalytic activity of $Fe_2O_3–V_2O_5$ (SSD). 1CuO wt% $Fe_2O_3–V_2O_5$ exhibited the highest percentage of 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation (100%) and the highest reaction rate (1.83 mg/L min) in 30 min.This finding is attributed to the distribution of CuO.