Recycling blast furnace dust into metals (Al, Zn and Ti)-doped hematite with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract Metals (Al, Zn, Ti)-doped hematite is prepared from blast furnace dust through sulfolysis and hydrothermal processes, where all the Fe and dopants (Al, Zn and Ti) are recovered from the dust without any chemical agents as start materials. Results indicate that the dust-derived hematite shows an enhanced methylene-blue’s photodegradation rate of 72.2% than the pristine one within 150 min under simulated sunlight illumination, owing to the appropriate co-doping of the dust-derived metals to α-Fe 2 O 3 .