Fenton-like degradation of reactive dyes catalyzed by biogenic jarosite

A kind of Fe mineral-biogenic jarosite was prepared by biooxidation of Fe²⁺ using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. Decolorization of reactive dyes, Reactive Blue 19 (RB) and Reactive Orange 1 (RO), were conducted using asprepared jarosite as a catalyst in the presence of H²O² via a Fenton-like reaction process. The experimental results indicated that jarosite can serve as an efficient Fe catalyst to initiate Fenton-like reaction in the process of dye decolorization. 98% of decolorization efficiency of RB was achieved within 105 min of reaction time by using 5 mM H²O ² and 1 g/L jarosite catalyst at pH 5.0. The current investigation may provide a practical and costseffective way using biogenic Fe minerals for remediation of wastewater contaminated with industrial colorants.