Preparation of magnetically recyclable palygorskite Fe-octacarboxylic acid phthalocyanine nano-composites and their photocatalytic behavior for degradation of Rhodamine B

Novel magnetically recyclable nano-composite photocatalyst (AT/Fe3O4-FeOCAP) was successfully prepared from Fe-octacarboxylic acid phthalocyanine (FeOCAP) and magnetic palygorskite nanoparticle (AT/Fe3O4) by an ultrasonic method. The structure characterizations of the photocatalyst were carried out by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Ultraviolet-visible spectra (UV-Vis), Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Moreover, the photocatalytic degradation properties and reusability of the photocatalyst were evaluated using Rhodamine B (RhB) as a model compound. The results of FT-IR, UV-Vis and XPS showed the FeOCAP was successfully introduced onto the surface of the AT/Fe3O4. The nano-composite photocatalyst showed excellent superparamagnetic property, and therefore, could be effectively separated by simply applying an external magnetic field. Photocatalytic activity studies confirmed that the as-prepared photocatalyst had excellent RhB photodegradation property. The degradation percentage of RhB was about 95.6%. The degradation kinetics could be described by the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model.