Kinetics of Solvent Blue and Reactive Yellow removal using microwave radiation in combination with nanoscale zero-valent iron

We investigated the efficiency and kinetics of the degradation of soluble dyes over the p H range 5.0–9.0 using a method employing microwave radiation in combination with nanoscale zero-valent iron（MW–n ZVI）. The n ZVI particles（40–70 nm in diameter） were prepared by a liquid-phase chemical reduction method employing starch as a dispersant.Compared to the removal of Solvent Blue 36 and Reactive Yellow K-RN using only n ZVI,more rapid and efficient dye removal and total organic carbon removal were achieved using MW–n ZVI. The dye removal efficiency increased significantly with decreasing p H, but was negligibly affected by variation in the microwave power. The kinetics of dye removal by MW–n ZVI followed both an empirical equation and the pseudo first-order model, while the kinetics of dye removal using n ZVI could only be described by an empirical equation. It was also concluded that microwave heating of the dye solutions as well as acceleration of corrosion of n ZVI and consumption of Fe（II） were possible reasons behind the enhanced dye degradation.