Stress-induced activation of the commercial Fe-based metallic glass ribbons for azo dye degradation

Abstract Handling of massive azo dye wastewater and waste commercial Fe-based metallic glass ribbons for iron core uses separately is lavish. A win-win trade would be degrading the azo dye by the Fe-based metallic glass ribbons. However, the waste ribbons, especially those undergone heat treatments, generally show insufficient degrading activity. In this work, a general stress-induced activation strategy is proposed to improve the azo dye degradation performance of the Fe-based metallic glass ribbons via the facile and efficient rolling treatment, which is generally applicable for various alloy systems of as-cast and as-heated states. A set of in-situ degradation vs. stress experiment confirms the stress-induced activation behavior. The stress introduced by rolling treatment is responsible for the decreased activation energy that leads to increased reductivity, which results in facilitated degradation activity and diffusion-controlled mechanism. This work is of great economic and environmental importance for handling the azo dye wastewater with the massive waste Fe-based metallic glass ribbons.