Fabrication of efficient, magnetic graphene oxide nanocomposite for the enhanced photodegradation of organic dyes under visible light

Abstract

This study reports magnetic graphene oxide composite microspheres (MGO) were firstly synthesized via one step miniemulsion polymerization. α-FeOOH rods were then loaded onto MGO via a facile hydrothermal method to prepare α-FeOOH@MGO, which was served as the photocatalyst for the Fenton reaction. Subsequently, the properties of the resulting α-FeOOH@MGO were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, VSM and UV-vis DRS analysis methods. The influence of various parameters was investigated, such as dye type, dye concentration, H₂O₂ dosage, catalysts dosage and pH of MO solution during heterogeneous photo-Fenton processes. Under visible light irradiation, the degradation rate of MO, MB and CR could reach 99.96%, 98.47% and 99.97% in 40 min, respectively. Six cycle experiments confirmed that the α-FeOOH@MGO possessed a satisfied stability and recycling ability. In addition, the photocatalytic reaction mechanism was also revealed by the Mott-Schottky plot, band structure and trapping experiments of active species.