Construction and improved photocatalytic performance of Fe3O4@resorcinol-formaldehyde-resins/Ag3PO4/Ag/AgBr magnetic multi-component catalyst

A magnetic Fe3O4@resorcinol-formaldehyde resins/Ag3PO4/Ag/AgBr multicomponent photocatalyst (denoted as Fe3O4@RFR/Ag3PO4/Ag/AgBr) was successfully constructed through a simple precipitation reaction between AgNO3 and Na2HPO4 in the presence of Fe3O4@RFR microspheres, and the subsequent ion exchange between produced Ag3PO4 and KBr. The phase and the morphology of the as-prepared samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, (high resolution) transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, X-ray powder diffraction and energy dispersive spectrometry. The experiments showed that the as-obtained Fe3O4@RFR/Ag3PO4/Ag/AgBr photocatalyst processed a high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under the simulated sunlight irradiation. The above high photocatalytic performance was attributed to the surface Plasmon resonance originated from the Ag nanoparticles. Furthermore, it was found that the amount of Br- ion introduced could markedly affect the photocatalytic ability of the present catalyst. Experiments proved that the center dot O-2 (-) ions were the main reactive species during the photodegradation of RhB. Owing to the presence of the magnetic core, the as-prepared multi-component catalyst could be easily collected. After five cycles, the photocatalytic efficiency still kept similar to 91%.