A C-Doped TiO2/Fe3O4 Nanocomposite for Photocatalytic Dye Degradation under Natural Sunlight Irradiation

Abstract

Magnetically recyclable C-doped TiO2/Fe3O4 (C-TiO2/Fe3O4) nanocomposite was successfully synthesized via a sol–gel method. The synthesized samples were characterized using SEM, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), FTIR, and UV-VIS diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) techniques. The results clearly showed that a C-TiO2/Fe3O4 nanocomposite was produced. The photocatalytic activities of the prepared pristine (TiO2), C-doped TiO2 (C-TiO2) and C-TiO2/Fe3O4 were evaluated by the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) under natural sunlight. The effect of catalyst loading and MO concentration were studied and optimized. The C-TiO2/Fe3O4 nanocomposite exhibited an excellent photocatalytic activity (99.68%) that was higher than the TiO2 (55.41%) and C-TiO2 (70%) photocatalysts within 150 min. The magnetic nanocomposite could be easily recovered from the treated solution by applying external magnetic field. The C-TiO2/Fe3O4 composite showed excellent photocatalytic performance for four consecutive photocatalytic reactions. Thus, this work could provide a simple method for the mass production of highly photoactive and stable C-TiO2/Fe3O4 photocatalyst for environmental remediation.