Synthesis of TiO2/Fe3O4/MWCNT Magnetic and Reusable Nanocomposite with High Photocatalytic Performance in the Removal of Colored Combinations from Water

Abstract

In this study, TiO2/Fe3O4 and TiO2/Fe3O4/MWCNT as a new magnetic nanophotocatalytic materials were synthesized. For this, TiO2 nanoparticle were fixed on an inert surface by sonochemical method. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), vibration sample magnetometry (VSM) were used to characterize the magnetic nanocomposites. SEM analysis indicated that TiO2 and Fe3O4 nanoparticles were adhered to MWCNT. Ability of the nanocomposites to remove organic pollutants were investigated by photodegradation of Acid Red 14, Acid Blue 19, Reactive Red 77, and Methyl Orange dyes simulated conditions similar to sunlight. Furthermore, the removal efficiency of AR14 were investigated under direct sunlight irradiation, with an initial concentration of 50 mg/L by TiO2, TiO2/Fe3O4 and TiO2/Fe3O4/MWCNT nanocatalysts were 89.83, 21.19 and 86.27, respectively. According to the results, addition of carbon nanotubes to the TiO2/Fe3O4 magnetic nanocomposite, increased the efficiency of AR14 photodegradtion through change in energy gap visible waves and the scavenging role of carbon nanotubes. Also, The reusability of nanocomposites was assessed in five consecutive cycles of 6 hours, The results showed that after 5 cycles the degradation rate decreased only 7.79 %.