Preparation and Application of a Nano α-Fe2O3/SAPO-34 Photocatalyst for Removal of the Anti-cancer Drug Doxorubicin using the Taguchi Approach

Abstract

AbstractThe synthesis of α-Fe2O3/SAPO-34 nano photocatalyst was the first step of this study. The α-Fe2O3 nanocatalyst was synthesized applying forced hydrolysis and reflux condensation followed by solid-state dispersion that was used for supporting α-Fe2O3 on SAPO-34. The next step was a characterization of the catalyst that was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Then, for optimizing the operational parameters in Doxorubicin’s degradation process the effect of Doxorubicin concentration, the amount of α-Fe2O3/SAPO-34 nano photocatalyst, the pH, and H2O2 concentration was studied via the Taguchi method. The AL9 orthogonal array was adjusted and nine crucial runs were conducted. For calculating Signal/Noise ratio, each run was repeated three times. As the results showed, the concentration of Doxorubicin is the most effective parameter. Optimized conditions for removing the anti-cancer drug (based on Signal/Noise ratio) were Doxorubicin concentration (20 ppm), H2O2 concentration (3 mol/L), catalyst amount (50 mg/L) and pH = 8.