Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Systems

This study focuses on the photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) in heterogeneous and homogeneous photo-Fenton reactions. In the heterogeneous system, iron(II) doped copper ferrite CuII(x)FeII(1-x)FeIII2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) prepared in our previous work were employed as potential catalysts. The photodegradation of RhB was carried out in a quartz cuvette located in a diode array spectrometer. The experimental conditions such as pH, NPs dosage and H2O2 dosage with regard to the photocatalytic degradation of RhB were optimized to be 7.5, 500 mg/L and 8.9x10-2 mol/L, respectively. In addition, visible light-induced photodegradation of RhB was also carried out by using \ch{H2O2} over a wide pH range in the absence of heterogeneous photocatalysts. It was observed that the reaction rate significantly increased above pH 10, resulting in a faster rate of degradation of RhB, which may be attributed to the deprotonation of hydrogen peroxide. Furthermore, the potential antibacterial property of such catalysts against the Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio fischeri in a bioluminescence assay yielded inhibition activities of more than 60% in all cases.