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.