Synthesis of Fe3O4/ZnO nanoparticles and their application for the photodegradation of anionic and cationic dyes

Abstract

Multifunctional materials have become an important research subject in recent years. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NP) deposited on iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4) allow to obtain material with photocatalytic and magnetic properties. The mass share of Fe 3 O 4 in the composite was 30%. Saturation magnetization for this sample was about 9.5 emu/g. The use of magnetic material allows to recover the photocatalyst after the photodegradation process and reuse it. The possibility of recovery of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles with a magnet was estimated at 94.80%, while the recovery of Fe 3 O 4 /ZnO achieved 83.91%. The effects of the type of dyes (Methylene Blue, Methyl Orange, Quinoline Yellow, Eriochromic Black T and Trypanic Blue) on their photodegradation efficiency in terms of molar mass of the dye, the solvent in which the processes were carried out and the type of dye charge were investigated. The photocatalytic material showed higher photodegradation activity of dyes while increasing their molar mass. ZnO NPs deposited on Fe 3 O 4 presented 95.61% photocatalytic efficiency against Trypan Blue and 63.02% against Methylene Blue. Increasing the surface area of the catalyst to 39 m 2 /g and the presence of micro-, meso-and macropores had a positive effect on the sorption process of dyes, especially those of larger sizes, allowing their degradation in the photodegradation process.

Synthesis and Characterization of ZnO@Fe3O4 Composite Nanostructures by Using Hydrothermal Synthesis Method

“…Sin et al found the magnetic saturation value as 2.81 emu/g in the ZnO@ Fe3O4 nanostructure they synthesized with a facile surfactant-free method [30]. Długosz et al, reported the magnetic saturation value of the Fe3O4/ZnO nanostructure they synthesized with a microwave reactor as 9.5 emu/g [22]. This study is consistent with the values obtained in the literature.…”

“…In addition, the lack of any impurity peak in the XRD diffraction patterns in these structures indicates that they have high crystallinity. The resulting XRD patterns were seen to be consistent with the ZnO@Fe3O4 nanostructures obtained by different methods in the literature, but they gave better results in terms of impurity [5,6], [20][21][22]. The synthesized SEM images of the ZnO containing different weight ratios of Fe3O4 are shown in Figure 3a and Figure 3b.…”

“…The presence of different types of structures was observed in the TEM analysis, as shown in Figure 4a and Figure 4b. It was understood that 10-20 nm irregular spherical ZnO NPs accumulated around Fe3O4 structures with 50-100 nm amorphous branches [22]. The EDS-spot and EDS-mapping results of the hydrothermally synthesized ZnO@Fe3O4 nanostructures are shown in Fig.…”

Elaboration of Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposite with highly performance photocatalytic activity for degradation methylene blue under visible light irradiation

“…Długosz et al [48] evaporated Fe3O4/ZnO by microwave process to recorded 63% removal percent of methylene blue. We can conclude that from previous studies the photocatalytic activity of Fe3O4/ZnO depend on the preparation method and the structure of the nanocomposite.…”

Removing MBD Using Fe2O3 NPs Modified by FeCl3 (0.1 M and 0.3 mM) With Myrtle Leaf Extract As Environmental Application

“…Gamma irradiation [31] and biological method [32]. These days the photo degradation method is considered as highly e cient and easy to apply [33][34][35][36]. But it needs a photo catalyst having high surface area, stability, photocatalytic activity and biocompatibility.…”