Synthesis and evaluations of Fe3O4-TiO2-Ag nanocomposites for photocatalytic degradation of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP): effect of Ag and Fe compositions

This work reports the synthesis of nanocomposites of Fe3O4-TiO2-Ag with different weight concentrations of iron (Fe) and silver (Ag) doped on TiO2. The nanocomposites were prepared by a novel and facile ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal method, and their effectiveness was evaluated for photocatalytic degradation. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and N-2 adsorption-desorption methods were performed to characterize the prepared catalysts. The photocatalytic activity of Fe3O4-TiO2-Ag was studied by illumination of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) in an aqueous solution under UV irradiation, which showed significant enhancement in the degradation of 4-CP compared to un-doped nano TiO2. The maximum degradation of 97% in 165 min for Fe3+ and Ag+ with 0.3 and 2% wt. was observed. Furthermore, the stability and reusability of the synthesized catalysts were studied and demonstrated only 3% decrease in removal efficiency after five cycles.