The photocatalytic degradation of phenanthrene-contaminated soil over Fe-doped TiO2
under visible light irradiation was investigated. The influence of physicochemical parameters such
as catalyst dosage, dopant doping and soil pH was studied. The optimum amount of 3 at. wt%Fe
doped TiO2 (1%) expressed high photocatalytic activity of 83.45% under visible irradiation with
alkaline conditions within 2 h. The Fe dopant significantly enhanced phenanthrene photocatalytic
degradation by the strong oxidizing OH·radical and complex [Fe3+-ligand] could generated by
the Photo-Fenton-Like catalyst reaction. A possible mechanism of phenanthrene degradation
was proposed based on GC/MS elucidation. In the presence of Fe dopant, phenanthrene was
degraded to heptadecane. Based on the quantification analysis, the presence of TiO2 catalysts for
degradation of phenanthrene in the soil sample could reduce the concentration of phenanthrene
from 60 mg kg-1 to 20 mg kg-1 within 2 hours, while in the control soil without catalyst, the
concentration of phenanthrene could only be reduced from 60 mg kg-1 to 40 mg kg-1 in equal