Effect of magnesium ferrite doping with lanthanide ions on dark-, visible- and UV-driven methylene blue degradation on heterogeneous Fenton-like catalysts

The catalytic behavior of magnesium ferrites doped with lanthanide ions (La³⁺, Ce³⁺, Sm³⁺, Gd³⁺, and Dy³⁺) on Methylene Blue (MB) degradation using Fenton process was studied. A slow increase in cubic Fd3m crystalline structure parameters and increase in crystallite size of doped samples magnesium ferrites were observed. A dramatic decrease in catalytic activity of catalysts obtained at 600 °C as compared to catalysts obtained at 300 °C was explicitly observed and this was grossly attributed to the elimination of surface hydroxyl groups as ascertained by FT-IR analysis. The initial magnesium ferrite demonstrated the highest catalytic activity under dark- (kˈ 0.0555 min⁻¹) and visible-light (kˈ 0.1029 min⁻¹) conditions. Catalytic efficiency of the lanthanides doped catalysts under UV-irradiation in accordance with the maximum appearance rate constant kˈ decreased in the following order Ce³⁺ > Dy³⁺ > La³⁺ ≈ MgFe₂O₄ > Sm³⁺ > Gd³⁺. The most active ferrites provided up to 99% of MB degradation in 60 and 20 min for visible- and UV-driven Fenton processes. Findings obtained from this study were observed to be competitive with other heterogeneous Fenton catalysts.