Ultrasonic irradiation-driven sonocatalytic degradation of methylene blue by ternary Fe3O4/ZnO/NGP nanocomposites

Abstract

In the current work, ZnO nanoparticles were modified by Fe3O4 and nanographene platelets (NGP) to enhance their sonocatalytic activity for degradation of methylene blue. The molar ratio between Fe3O4 and ZnO is 1:5, so we denote it as Fe3O4/5ZnO Ternary Fe3O4/5ZnO/NGP with various wt.% of nanographene platelets were fabricated by the sol-gel combining with the hydrothermal methods. The structure, chemical composition and surface area of ternary Fe3O4/5ZnO/NGP were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and surface area analyzer while the thermal properties were characterized by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) measurements. The magnetic properties of the samples were investigated using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The conditions such as the weight ratio of nanographene platelets in ternary Fe3O4/5ZnO/NGP, catalyst dose and reusability of catalyst were investigated to identify the degradation of methylene blue under ultrasonic irradiation. A possible mechanism was proposed for the degradation of methylene blue over ternary Fe3O4/5ZnO-nanographene platelets ultrasonic irradiation. The ternary Fe3O4/5ZnO-nanographene platelets can be separated from the system effectively and easily using external magnet field. A significant sonocatalytic activity after four successive recycles was recorded and confirmed that the structure of ternary Fe3O4/5ZnO-nanographene platelets is stable during the sonocatalytic process.