In this research, three magnetically separable photocatalysts,
Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2, SrFe12O19/SiO2/TiO2 and Fe3O4/SiO2/ZnO, with
core/shell/shell structures were successfully prepared. In the first step,
soft magnetic and hard magnetic Fe3O4 and SrFe12O19 powders were synthesized
using carbon reduction and co-precipitation routes, respectively. In the
second step, silica coating was performed by controlling the hydrolysis and
con- densation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) precursor on the magnetic
cores. In the third step, a layer of TiO2 or ZnO photocatalytic shells was
made on the as-prepared composites using titanium n-butoxide (TNBT) or zinc
nitrate hexahydrate, respectively. The formation of the core/shell/shell
structures was confirmed by FESEM and TEM analyses. The saturation
magnetizations of the Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2, SrFe12O19/SiO2/TiO2 and
Fe3O4/SiO2/ZnO photocatalytic materials were 41.5, 33 and 49 emu/g,
respectively. Photocatalytic activity was evaluated by degradation
percentages of methylene blue (MB) under UV illumination, which were 88%,
83% and 62%, for the Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2, SrFe12O19//TiO2 and Fe3O4/SiO2/ZnO
composites, respectively. The first-, and second-order reaction kinetics
were used to find out the suitable MB removal kinetics.