Microwave-assisted high-efficiency degradation of methyl orange by using CuFe 2 O 4 /CNT catalysts and insight into degradation mechanism

Microwave-assisted catalytic oxidation technology has become an effective technology for rapid removal of organic pollutants in wastewater. In this research, the removal of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution by CuFe 2 O 4 loaded on carbon nanotubes (CuFe 2 O 4 /CNTs) under microwave irradiation was studied. The effects of different loadings (1:2, 1:4, 1:8) of CuFe 2 O 4 on the dielectric loss, magnetic loss, dielectric loss factor, magnetic loss factor, and reflection loss of composite materials were studied. The results showed that the microwave adsorption performance was improved by loading CuFe 2 O 4 on CNTs. These different composites were further characterized by SEM, FTIR, and XRD techniques. In addition, this article also studied the effects of different microwave irradiation time, pH, and ionic factors on the degradation of MO. In particular, the mechanism of MO degradation by composite materials under different pH conditions was also studied in detail. The results showed that the removal rate reaches 97% with 5 min under the best conditions, and the composite material had good anti-interference performance. This study may provide a new option to degrade organic dye in wastewater treating. Graphical abstract