Iron Supported on Ion Exchange Resin as Source of Iron for Fenton Reagent: A Heterogeneous or a Homogeneous Fenton Reagent Generation?

The aim of this work is to discuss the relative contribution of homogeneous and heterogeneous Fenton processes in the treatment of Orange II dye solutions at pH 3 and 7 using an ion exchange resin as iron support. While at pH 3, 99% of the colour was removed, under neutral conditions a decoloration of 56% was observed. Studying the release of iron from the resin, we found a concentration of 1.49 mg/L of ferric ion and 0.31 mg/L of ferrous ion at pH 3 and 1.08 mg/L and 0.11 mg/L at pH 7, revealing that as expected, dissolution of iron ions at pH 3 is larger. Using these concentrations in a homogeneous process, 45% of the colour can be removed at pH 3 and 10% at pH 7, so it was infered that there is an effect of the iron that is still supported on the resin. In this way, a mixed homogeneous/heterogeneous mechanism could be proposed. While the experimental data for the desorption of iron at pH 3 was well suited to a pseudo second order kinetic model, the desorption of iron at pH 7 was fit to pseudo-first order kinetics. Experimental results of dye decolorization were on the other hand, fitted to a pseudo first order kinetics.