Preparation and characterization of fullerene (C60)-modified BiVO4/Fe3O4 nanocomposite by hydrothermal method and study of its visible light photocatalytic and catalytic activity

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study, BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite has been synthesized for the first time using a facile and feasible hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and N2 adsorption-desorption analysis were utilized to analyze the structure, morphology, size, and the magnetic property of the synthesized nanocomposite. The photocatalytic activity of the magnetic BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite was investigated for the degradation of methylene blue. The results showed that 84% degradation of methylene blue (MB) (25 mg/L) solution within 5 h with a rate constant equal to 0.0049 min−1 in the presence of BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite and H2O2 (1 mL, 30%) under visible light irradiation. The effects of BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 dosage, H2O2 amount dye initial concentration and C60 amount on the efficiency of degradation process were investigated. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of the magnetic BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite was investigated for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) in the aqueous solution and at room temperature. The results showed that BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite exhibited an excellent performance for the reduction of 4-NP with 97% conversion into its corresponding amino derivative within 38 min with a constant rate equal to 0.0775 min−1. As indicated by the results, the magnetic BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite exhibited much higher photocatalytic and catalytic activity than BiVO4/ C60, BiVO4/Fe3O4, and pure BiVO4. Moreover, the BiVO4/Fe3O4/C60 nanocomposite could be magnetically separated from the reaction mixture due to the presence of the Fe3O4 and reused without any change in structure.