Preparation of Fe3O4/BiPO4 magnetic nanocomposite and its photocatalytic performance

Fe3O4/BiPO4 nanocomposite was prepared by the reverse co-precipitation and glycerin-assisted hydro thermal method. The material was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS), as well as the analysis of morphological structure and chemical composition. This work investigated the photocatalytic performance of Fe3O4/BiPO4 particles with Rhodamine B (RhB) as a model pollutant. The degradation rate of RhB (5 mg/L, 250 mL) reached 92% with 0.25 photo catalyst after 6 h treatment. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that superoxide radical (center dot O-2(-)), photo generated hole (h(+)) and hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH) played part in photocatalytic reaction, while the contribution of center dot O-2(-) was domain. Fe3O4/BiPO4 photocatalyst still had magnetic properties and degradation rate was still about 86% after five successive runs, which was much suitable for the reuse. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.