Room-temperature preparation of MIL-88A as a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst for degradation of rhodamine B and bisphenol a under visible light

MIL-88A, a Fe-based MOF, with different sizes was prepared successfully at room-temperature, which was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS). Water played an important role in the room-temperature synthesis as water could facilitate the deprotonation of fumaric acid and hydrolysis of iron salt to accelerate crystal nucleation, and this room-temperature preparation is beneficial to the large-scale synthesis and is imperative to push forward the development of the MIL-88A. The as-prepared MIL-88A exhibited excellent photo-Fenton catalytic performance towards rhodamine B and bisphenol A removal under visible light irradiation (LED). The main active specie was investigated, the degradation mechanism and BPA degradation pathway were proposed. Furthermore, the as-prepared MIL-88A displayed good reusability, and there was no obvious decline of degradation performance after five cycles.