Dandelion-like Fe3O4@CuTNPc hierarchical nanostructures as a magnetically separable visible-light photocatalyst

A novel visible photocatalyst of nanostructured 2,9,16,23-tetranitrophthalocyanine copper(II) (CuTNPc) coated on Fe3O4 particles has been successfully fabricated using a simple solvent-thermal process. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance (DR), Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), were used to characterize the as-synthesized dandelion-like Fe3O4@CuTNPc hierarchical nanostructure. The photocatalytic studies suggested that the dandelion-like Fe3O4@CuTNPc hierarchical nanostructure showed excellent photocatalytic efficiency for the degradation of rhodamine B (RB) and methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. More importantly, the dandelion-like nanostructured Fe3O4@CuTNPc photocatalysts could be effectively separated for reuse by simply applying an external magnetic field. A possible mechanism for the formation of the dandelion-like nanostructured Fe3O4@CuTNPc is suggested.