Iron rich laterite soil with mesoporous structure for heterogeneous Fenton-like degradation of an azo dye under visible light

• Iron rich laterite as a heterogeneous catalyst in photo-Fenton process.
• Study of the influences of basic operational parameters and kinetics.
• Study of the degradation mechanism in the presence of radical scavengers.

Treatment of C.I. Acid Red 17 (AR17) by heterogeneous photo-Fenton-like process was studied using calcined laterite soil as an iron source. A complete characterization was performed to explain some of the properties of the used catalyst. Comparing the processes of heterogeneous Fenton-like and photo-Fenton-like, revealed that using heterogeneous photo-Fenton-like led to the highest decolorization efficiency (94.71% at 120 min). Experimental results indicated that the heterogeneous photo-Fenton-like process could be explained in terms of the Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model. The main roles of hydroxyl radicals in degradation process were investigated by adding of various radical scavengers.