Natural solar light driven degradation of refractory chlorophenolic pollutant using: Carbon doped and carbon–iron co-doped electrospun titania fibers

• Employment of natural and less toxic precursors in the doping/co-doping processes.
• Lower H2O2 consumption for effective mineralization of 2,4-DCP.
• Efficient destruction of 2,4-DCP till very low solar intensity of 20 klx.
• Recovery and reuse of catalyst after the completion of photochemical treatment.

The present investigation focused on a clean and green destruction of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) under natural sunlight using pristine, carbon doped and carbon–iron co-doped electrospun TiO2 fibers. The synthesized fibers were characterized by XRD, HR-SEM, EDX, UV–vis spectroscopy and BET specific surface area analysis. From XRD, the co-doped samples were found to contain beneficial fraction of 73% anatase and 27% rutile phases. From HR-SEM, the fibrous structure was found to be retained after the doping and co-doping processes. The effect of operating variables like pH, catalyst dosage, oxidant concentration, solar intensity and initial pollutant concentration was also investigated. Solar photo-Fenton’s degradation of 2,4-DCP was favorable at pH 3 than at basic pH and an oxidant concentration of 9.9 mM/L was sufficient to effectively mineralize 2,4-DCP. The rate of degradation was remarkably high when the intensity of sunlight was >85 kiloLUX and decreased with decrease in solar intensity, however, complete degradation of 2,4-DCP was possible till very low solar intensity of 20 klx.

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