Photocatalytic activity of Fe-doped diopside

UV-visible light induced photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) over Fe-doped diopside was investigated. The structure, composition, morphology and absorption property of UV-visible light of as-prepared samples were characterized using XRD, SEM, FTIR and UV-vis DRS. The experimental results show that doping Fe3+ induced the formation of some new species in diopside, and promoted light adsorption property of diopside in UV-visible region. Photochemical reactivity of Fe-doped diopside obviously depended on the content of doping Fe3+. The diopside with 1.848% Fe3+ exhibited the superior photocatalytic activity with 95% degradation of MB under UV-visible light for 3 h. The photocatalytic degradation kinetics of MB over all samples showed the first-order reaction nature.