Abstract
The environmental problem caused by mining companies is known and has been studied by several authors. In this work, a sustainable solution was sought for iron-based waste collected from a mining company. This waste was purified and synthesized as a promising catalyst for degradation of polluting compounds, using methylene blue as a test. The sol–gel synthesis route was efficient for the removal of unwanted residues and for the formation of the α-Fe2O3 product. The material after sol–gel reached about 95.6% of degradation of the methylene blue solution (20 mg L−1), this response that can be attributed to a more porous and less compacted morphology and the presence of a more organized phase. This work assigns a sustainable purpose for iron waste, accumulated in mining companies, and shows that these materials can be as efficient for environmental remediation, as those contained in the literature.
Highlights
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Purification and sol–gel synthesis of mining waste.
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Use of mining waste as catalysts for advanced oxidative processes.
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A sustainable purpose for the environmental problem caused by mining companies.
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Data availability
Data supporting the results of this study will be made available by the corresponding author, [ECS], upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
WAL thanks to CNPq and FAPEAM for financial support and to the Laboratório Temático de Microscopia Óptica e Eletronica (LTMOE), from Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas do Amazonas (INPA) for the micrograph images.
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Wenderson A. S. Lira helped in writing—original draft, data curation, formal analysis, conceptualization, methodology and validation.
Emilly C Silva contributed to writing—original draft, data curation, formal analysis, supervision and visualization.
Leandro A. Pocrifka and Amanda C. Oliveira were involved in writing—review & editing.
Raimundo R. Passos reviewed the study.
Adriano C. Rabelo helped in project administration.
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Lira, W.A.S., Silva, E.C., Pocrifka, L.A. et al. Waste from an Amazon Mining Company Applied as a Catalyst in Photocatalysis Reactions for Environmental Remediation. Water Air Soil Pollut 233, 255 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05733-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05733-3