Development and applications of Ru and Ce based iron oxides as photocatalysts

This paper describes cerium and ruthenium oxides as catalysts in photo-degradation of Congo Red. Results show an alteration in the chemical properties and crystal structure as Ru or Ce are incorporated into the system. Ruthenium materials, are a mixture of carbonous iron oxides, Ru2O and Ru-0 clusters and cerium catalysts are a distorted spinel ferrite. Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy reveals direct bandgaps of 2.03 and 2.46 eV for Ru and Ce materials respectively. The photo-oxidation of Congo red followed first-order kinetics (k = 3.3 x 10(-3) mol.min(-1)) in the presence of Ru catalysts whereas cerium materials performed poorly (k = 0.7 x 10(-3) mol.min(-1)). A DFT structural optimization was attempted for ruthenium catalysts involving a mixture of Fe (CH3COO)(2), Ru2O and Ru-7(0) but for Ce materials, an inverse spinel with CeFe2O4 composition is presented.

Automated summary

This paper explores the properties and structures of cerium and ruthenium oxides as catalysts in the photo-degradation of Congo Red. It is found that the addition of Ru or Ce alters the chemical properties and crystal structure of the system. Ru catalysts perform well, while Ce catalysts exhibit poor performance.