Application of a novel bimetallic hydrogel based on iron and cobalt for the synergistic catalytic degradation of Congo Red dye

Herein, we developed a bimetallic (Fe and Co) polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel (FeCo@PAM) to investigate the synergistic catalytic degradation of Congo Red (CR) dye. The structure and the morphology of the FeCo@PAM hydrogel were analyzed using the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). To study the chemical composition of our catalyst, the FTIR technique was applied. The SEM and EDX confirmed the presence of bimetallic ions in the PAM hydrogel. All critical parameters of the catalyst, that is, mass, dye concentration, H2O2 dose, temperature, and pH were investigated and optimized. The synergistic oxidative catalytic degradation of the CR dye using FeCo@PAM under the optimal conditions was calculated to be 96.45% (60 min), which was 11.26% (75 min) higher than that of Fe@PAM and 11.69% (75 min) higher than that of Co@PAM. For FeCo@PAM, not only the degradation percentage increased also the reaction time decrease was phenomenal. These experiments verified the synergistic oxidative degradation of the CR dye exhibited by the FeCo@PAM catalyst. The Kinetic isotherm studies were also studied to determine the CR degradation progression. Our FeCo@PAM catalyst also demonstrated to be highly recyclable, as high CR dye degradation was accomplished up to three consecutive cycles.