Brownmillerite Calcium Ferrite, a Promising Perovskite-Related Material in the Degradation of a Tight Dye under Ambient Conditions.

Evaluation of effective and low-cost materials as catalysts to combat the threat of pollution is a significant and growing trend. With this aim, we have synthesized calcium ferrite brownmillerite by wet preparation approach as a catalyst for pollution. The structural analysis is established by the X-ray diffraction of Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 , whereas the tetrahedral and octahedral sites band stretching for ferrite specimen has been deduced using FTIR. The bandgap energy has been estimated by the Tauc relation (2.17 eV). Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 brownmillerite exhibits a BET surface area of 10 m 2 /g and a BJH pore volume of 0.121 cm 3 /g with the average particle size of 70 nm. Importantly, the alizarin Red S dye degradation has been studied using the prepared ferrite catalyst, under dark ambient conditions and without the presence of any acidic or basic additives. Degradation is also supported by both FTIR and TOC analysis. Surface properties of brownmillerite Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 have been characterized using electronic spectroscopy and CO 2 temperature programmed desorption (TPD) analysis and revealed that the basic surface of brownmillerite Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 offers active sites that are suitable for degradation processes. All results show that the preparation of brownmillerite Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 via the Pechini method is suitable to produce fine surfaces and pores with nanosized particles.