Synthesis, characterization of magnetic-sepiolite supported with TiO2, and the photocatalytic performance over Cr(VI) and 2,4-dichlorophenol co-existed wastewater

In this paper, a novel photocatalyst of magnetic-modified sepiolite supported with nanosized titanium dioxide (TiO2/MMS) with efficient photoactivity and magnetic separability has been successfully prepared by a sol-gel method. The prepared samples were characterized by SEM, XRD, UV-vis, XPS, VSM and BET surface area analysis. The titania particles supported on the magnetic sepiolite was mainly anatase phase, and the composite showed super-magnetic properties which could be easily separated by an external magnetic field. Compared with neat TiO2, the TiO2/MMS composite exhibited enhanced adsorption ability and higher photocatalytic activity, 90.9% of the total DCP was removed after 120 min of UV irradiation. Moreover, in the binary system, the simultaneous photocatalytic treatment of Cr(VI) and DCP significantly enhanced the reduction, the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) and DCP was about 100% and 96.9%, respectively. The results revealed the feasibility and the effectiveness of using magnetic sepiolite supported TiO2 as photocatalyst for simultaneous decontamination of Cr(VI) and DCP, which may be due to the synergistic effect between the photocatalytic redox reactions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.