One-step fabrication of coral-like alpha-Fe2O3/alpha-Mn2O3 nanocomposite via gel-thermal decomposition for enhanced removal of Acid Yellow 23 dye using Fenton-like reaction

Herein, in the current study, Fe2O3/Mn2O3 nanocomposite was fabricated using the gel-thermal decomposition method and investigated for the removal of Acid Yellow 23 (AY23) via a Fenton-like reaction. The fabricated nanocomposite was characterized by employing XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, and pHPZC analysis. The XRD/FTIR results confirmed the presence of Mn(2)O3 and Fe2O3 with no impurities. According to SEM results, the nanocomposite exhibits coral-like architectural morphology, and the presence of the required elements is confirmed by the EDX analysis. The influence of operating parameters including initial pH values, temperature, dosages of Fe2O3/Mn2O3 catalyst, and H2O2 on the removal efficiency was investigated. The nanocomposite showed excellent performance toward the removal of AY23. Under optimized experimental conditions, complete removal was observed in 60 min. Furthermore, scavenger studies demonstrate the presence of HO(center dot) radicals as the primary active species involved in the dye removal process. Based on the results of the experiments, a possible mechanism for AY23 removal was proposed. At the three recycling runs, the removal efficiency of AY23 dye remained around 80 %, which indicates that Fe2O3/Mn2O3 has good stability and can be used repeatedly. These findings suggested that the Fe(2)O3/Mn2O3 nanocomposite as formed could have excellent application prospects in the Fenton-like field.