Preparation of Cu2O-Fe3O4@carbon nanocomposites derived from natural polymer hydrogel template for organic pollutants degradation

Abstract

In this paper, a novel preparation method was applied to fabricate 3D porous Cu2O-Fe3O4@carbon nanocomposites (Cu2O-Fe3O4@CN) using natural polymer hydrogel. The polymer hydrogel was used as template to immobilize cupric ions and ferrous ions first, it was then followed by a series of preparing processes including sedimentation, desiccation and calcination. Characterization analysis including TEM, EDS, XPS, XRD and VSM were employed to characterize the morphologies and structures of Cu2O-Fe3O4@CN. The photocatalytic performance of Cu2O-Fe3O4@CN for organic contaminant degradation under visible light irradiation was also evaluated. The effect of different preparation conditions on the morphology structure and photocatalytic performance of Cu2O-Fe3O4@CN was investigated and the optimal parameters were determined. After four repetitive use, the degradation efficiency only decreased from 95.1% to 90.1%, which suggested the great potential of Cu2O-Fe3O4@CN in industrialization and commercialization. Cu2O; Fe3O4; Nano materials; Sodium alginate; Photocatalysis; Synergistic effect