Modeling and optimization of simultaneous degradation of rhodamine B and acid red 14 binary solution by homogeneous Fenton reaction: a chemometrics approach

This study aimed to propose a mathematical method to investigate and optimize the simultaneous elimination process of multiple organic pollutants using the Fenton process. Hence, the treatment of rhodamine B (RB) and acid red 14 (AR14) dyes in their binary solution was studied. Multivariate curve resolution alternating least square (MCR-ALS), a novel chemometric method, was applied along with correlation constraints to resolute the UV-Vis spectrophotometric data, enabling quantification of investigated dyes despite a high spectral overlapping. Response surface methodology was adopted to assess the model and optimize individual and interactive effects of three independent factors (Fe(2+), H(2)O(2) and initial pH) on the simultaneous elimination of RB and AR14. The values of the regression coefficient for RB and AR14 were determined as 98.48 and 98.67 percent, respectively, revealing the reliability of the obtained polynomial models to predict decolorization efficiencies. Desirability function was employed to optimize the independent variables to attain the highest possible degradation performance for both dyes in their binary solution. At the optimum point of operation ([Fe(2+)] = 143.88 mg/L, [H(2)O(2)] = 126.89 mg/L and pH = 3.71), degradation efficiencies of RB and AR14 were found as 81.58% and 80.22%, respectively, which were nearly identical to the experimental results.