Magnetically Separable Fe3O4/TiO2 Hollow Spheres: Fabrication and Photocatalytic Activity

Well-defined magnetic separable, hollow spherical Fe3O4/TiO2 hybrid photocatalysts were successfully prepared through a poly(styrene-acrylic acid) (PSA) template method. This bifunctional product was characterized in terms of the particle size, surface morphology, chemical composition, and magnetic properties using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns. The M-H hysteresis loop for Fe3O4/TiO2 hollow spheres indicates that the composite spheres show superparamagnetic characteristics at room temperature. These magnetic TiO2 composites with hollow nature exhibit good photocatalytic activity under UV light irradiation and can be recycled six times by magnetic separation without major loss of activity. This method can be further applied to synthesize other bifunctional hollow spheres, such as Fe3O4/SnO2 and Fe3O4/CdS.