Efficient and sustainable catalytic degradation of methylene blue dye solution by Fe-Si-B amorphous alloy ribbon with large specific surface area

Amorphous alloy is an excellent catalytic material which has been widely concerned in the degradation of dye wastewater. In this paper, an Fe-Si-B amorphous alloy catalyst ribbon with large specific surface area is reported. By chemical dealloying method, nanopores , ligaments and corrosion pits can be formed on the surface of amorphous alloy ribbons by controlling acid concentration, corrosion time and temperature reasonably. These structures will increase the specific surface area. Compared with the original ribbon, the larger specific surface area can provide more unsaturated active sites and electron transfer channels for the reaction. Meanwhile, it has a lower reaction activation energy , which shows excellent catalytic degradation performance . Moreover, both the generation of metal-like oxides during the degradation process , and the accumulation and shedding phenomena affect the active sites and electron transfer pathways, thus confirming the influence of the surface morphology (specific surface area) of the ribbon on their catalytic degradation performance. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and free radical annihilation analysis shows that •OH is the key factor for oxidative degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye molecules. The stability, environmental applicability and degradation mechanism were studied. This study will contribute to broaden the application of Fe-based amorphous alloys in the field of dye wastewater by increasing the specific surface area without changing the chemical composition, and also provide a universal method to improve the degradation performance of other amorphous alloys.