Structural, electrical and photocatalytic properties of iron-containing soda-lime aluminosilicate glass and glass-ceramics

•Glass and glass-ceramics were synthesized under controlling the Fe2O3 content and basicity (B=CaO/SiO2).•Increasing basicity resulted in a change in the microstructure and increase in the particle size.•The electric conductivity increased with basicity to 2.2 × 10−8 Ω−1 cm−1 for the sample B=1.50.•The best sample for photo-Fenton degradation of methylene blue was B=1.50 with first-order rate constant of 1.15 × 10−1 min−1. The structure and electrical conductivity of iron-containing soda-lime alumino-silicate glass-ceramic system were investigated and used for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) solution. Mössbauer isomer shifts were decreased from 0.26 and 0.25 to 0.14 and 0.12 mm s−1 with increasing basicity from 0.75 to 1.50 revealing the cleavage in network structure due to the incorporation of Ca2+ ions. By increasing basicity from 0.75 to 1.50, the electrical conductivity was increased from (2.2 × 10−12 to 2.2 × 10−8 Ω−1 cm−1). More increase in basicity to 1.75 decreased the conductivity to 6.5× 10−9 Ω−1 cm−1. The electrical conductivity is ionic in nature and was correlated to the microstructure of the samples. The first-order rate constant (k) for the MB degradation was enhanced from 0.09 × 10−1 to 1.15 × 10−1 min−1 with increasing basicity from 0.75 to 1.50, having a good correlation with microstructure and electrical conductivity.