Facile synthesis and excellent recyclable photocatalytic activity of pine cone-like Fe3O4@Cu2O/Cu porous nanocomposites

Abstract

L-Cys-modified Fe3O4 was first prepared by a one-step partially-reduced method under mild conditions. Then, novel pine cone-like Fe3O4@Cu2O/Cu nanocomposites (NCs) with photomagnetic difunction were successfully synthesized via a one-pot solvothermal method on Fe3O4 without any additional linker or reducer. The average diameter of the as-synthesized products was about 4 μm, and the products were orderly assembled into many sheets with an average thickness of ~100 nm, possessing a porous structure. A possible formation mechanism of Fe3O4@Cu2O/Cu NCs involving interfacial recognization of ions, nucleation, aggregation, in situ transformation from Cu2O to Cu and Ostwald ripening process is proposed. The pine cone-like porous composites show excellent photocatalytic activity such that MO degradation efficiency is about 96% at an irradiation time of 20 min under visible light. Also, the composites present higher stability than Fe3O4@Cu2O and do not exhibit any significant loss after five recycles for the photodegradation of MO. The above results demonstrate that Cu could improve the photocatalytic activity of NCs and also inhibit the photocorrosion behavior of NCs. These novel Fe3O4@Cu2O/Cu composite materials are ideal candidates in water treatment and environmental cleaning as well as in magnetic applications, etc.

In situ preparation of magnetic Fe3O4.Cu2O.Fe3O4/cryogel nanocomposite powder via a reduction–coprecipitation method as adsorbent for methylene blue water pollutant

“…05‐0667). The interaction between Cu 2 O and Fe 3 O 4 is evident from the slight positive shift for the diffraction peaks (3 1 1), (5 1 1) and (2 2 0) of the produced Cu 2 O.2Fe 3 O 4 compared to pure magnetite . The crystal sizes of Cu 2 O.2Fe 3 O 4 can be estimated from coherently diffracting domain size ( d xrd ) of the Scherrer approximation as d xrd = kλ / β cos θ , where k is the Scherrer constant and λ is wavelength, which are 0.9 and 0.154 nm, respectively.…”

“…Cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O) NPs can be used to avoid the adverse biological effects of nanocomposites and can be combined with magnetic nanomaterials to improve the antimicrobial properties of the nanocomposites and to be more environmentally friendly materials. Moreover, it is expected that the presence of Cu 2 O as NPs will increase the binding and distribution of NPs with ionic polymers due to their ability to form unique core–shell magnetic composites . In the work presented here, Na‐AMPS was crosslinked and copolymerized with sodium styrene sulfonate (SS‐Na) to increase the chelation of iron and copper cations into the polymer networks and to modify the mechanical properties of the produced copolymer cryogel nanocomposites.…”

In situ preparation of magnetite/cuprous oxide/poly(AMPS/NIPAm) for removal of methylene blue from waste water

“…The slight positive shift for the magnetite diffraction peaks (311), (200), (511), (220) and (311) at approximately 35.5°, 43.2°, 57.1°, 61.5° and 77.6° (Fig. (b)) indicates the formation of AMPS/NIPAm/Fe 3 O 4 .Cu 2 O.Fe 3 O 4 …”

Low‐temperature assembling of naturally driven copper ferrite starch nanocomposites hydrogel with magnetic and antibacterial activities

“…Moreover, many materials are produced to reduce the environmental pollutions . One of these materials are magnetic nanoparticles considered for their unique properties, as well as their ability to completely recover by magnetic fields without filtration and centrifugation, having good safety, inexpensive and environmentally friendly . Ferrites with the formula of MFe 2 O 4 are an important class of magnetic nanoparticles, with lower toxicity, optical properties, and reaction catalysis.…”