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Effect of heat treatment on the photocatalytic activity of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles: towards diclofenac elimination

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Abstract

α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized via a straightforward method. XRD, FTIR, SEM, ESR, and DRS techniques investigated the influence of various calcination temperatures on the crystal structure, optical, and photocatalytic properties of the samples. The obtained results demonstrated that the average crystallite size increased with the increase in the calcination temperature. Measured and computed optical properties were in accordance and the bandgap energy decreased with the increase in the calcination temperature. The highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency for diclofenac (DCF) was obtained with the sample calcinated at 300 °C (96%). The photocatalytic process occurs because of the presence of OH• radicals. The addition of H2O2 led to the inhibition of OH• radicals that H2O2 scavenged.

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Data supporting the findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

M. Boujnah thanks DGAPA-UNAM for the postdoctoral fellowship.

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Ibtihal Mamoni: formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft. Asmae Bouziani: conceptualization, validation, writing—review and editing. Yassine Naciri: writing—review and editing. Mourad Boujnah: theoretical calculation. Mohammed Alaoui El Belghiti: supervision. Mohammed El Azzouzi: conceptualization, validation, supervision.

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Correspondence to Asmae Bouziani.

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Mimouni, ., Bouziani, A., Naciri, Y. et al. Effect of heat treatment on the photocatalytic activity of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles: towards diclofenac elimination. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 7984–7996 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16146-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16146-w

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