Catalytic activity of the barium hexaferrite with H2O2/visible light irradiation for degradation of Methylene Blue

• BaFe12O19 particles were synthetized by the chemical co-precipitation method.
• The photocatalytic activity was studied for Vis/BaFe12O19 and Vis/BaFe12O19/H2O2 processes.
• Vis/BaFe12O19/H2O2 show superior photocatalytic activity with low electric power consumption.
• BaFe12O19 can be easily separated from the effluent applying a magnetic field.

Barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19) is a novel and effective catalyst in the photo-Fenton like system for the rapid degradation of Methylene Blue (MB). The BaFe12O19 catalyst was synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation method and characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (SBET) surface area and optical adsorption analysis. The BaFe12O19 catalyst generated a good catalytic activity for MB degradation for a photo-Fenton like system under visible light irradiation, this is possible due to the catalyst can be activated using photons of visible light region as a consequence of its narrow band gap estimated of ∼1.77 eV, corresponding to absorption edge in the visible region from a wavelength of ∼700 nm. In such conditions the BaFe12O19 was able to decolorize and to mineralize up to 70.8% and 63.7% of the dye, respectively, after 360 min using a 3 W Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp (λ = 420–700 nm). In addition, the energy consumption of the Vis/BaFe12O19/H2O2 system was estimated at 11.1 W h/L/order.

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