Degradation of Reactive Yellow 86 with photo-Fenton process driven by solar light

The decolorization of Reactive Yellow 86 （RY 86）, one of reactive azo dyes, was investigated in the presence of Fenton reagent under solar light irradiation. The decolorization rate was strongly influenced by pH, initial concentrations of H202 and Fe（II）, and so on. An initial concentration of 40 mg/L was decolored more than 90% after 20 min under optimum conditions. The activation energy of the solar photo-Fenton reaction was 1.50 kJ/mol for RY 86 in the temperature range of 10-60℃. In the kinetic study, the rate constant of RY 86 with OH- radicals could be estimated to be 1.7 × 10^10 L/（mol.sec）. The decolorization efficiency of RY 86 under solar light irradiation was comparable to the artificial light irradiation. The decrease of TOC as a result of mineralization of RY 86 was observed during photo-Fenton process. The rate of RY 86 mineralization was about 83% under UV irradiation after 24 hr. The formation of chloride, sulfate, nitrate and ammonium ions as end-products was observed during the photocatalytic process. The decomposition of RY 86 gave two kinds of intermediate products. The degradation mechanism of RY 86 was proposed on the base of the identified intermediates.