Utilization of Iron Ore Tailing for the Preparation of ?-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract-The objective of this study was to recover the iron from the iron ore tailing and convert it into a value-added products like α-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles with photocatalytic properties. Iron was extracted from the iron ore tailing by using acid leaching method and the leaching parameters were discussed. When the amount and concentration of HCl, leaching reaction temperature and time were fixed at 21.4ml, 30%, 100°C and 1.5h, respectively, the iron recovery reached 99.63%. Mesoporous α-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles were successfully prepared by a facile precipitation method using the acid leaching solution as the iron source. The α-Fe 2 O 3 samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, N 2 adsorption and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The crystallite size of α-Fe 2 O 3 was about 36nm and the specific surface area was 46.03m 2 /g. The mesoporous α-Fe 2 O 3 prepared from iron ore tailing displayed better photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue, which was similar to that of α-Fe 2 O 3 prepared from pure agent.