Degradation of reactive blue 4 dye by a combination of Fe (III)/TiO2 catalyst and ultrasonic irradiation: Effect of Fe (III) loading and aeration

Fe(III)/TiO₂ catalysts for sonocatalytic degradation of reactive blue 4 (RB4) dye was developed using sol-gel method. The Fe (III) loadings were varied from 0-1.0 mol% with a calcination temperature of 500°C. The degradation performance was conducted using an ultrasonic bath with the power and frequency of 50 W and 35 kHz, respectively. The combination of 0.4 mol% of Fe (III)/TiO₂ under ultrasonic irradiation gave the highest sonocatalytic activity on the dye removal from the aqueous solution with 82% efficiency. Meanwhile, an excess amount of Fe (III) loading higher than 0.4 mol% hindered the degradation efficiency. The use of aeration in dye solution gave a positive effect in enhancing the degradation of RB4. A combination of aeration, 0.4Fe (III)/TiO₂ and ultrasonic irradiation accelerated the reaction rate with the removal efficiency of 96%.