TY - JOUR
T1 - Photocatalytic removal of methylene blue using titania- and silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles
AU - Dagher, Sawsan
AU - Soliman, Ahmed
AU - Ziout, Aiman
AU - Tit, Nacir
AU - Hilal-Alnaqbi, Ali
AU - Khashan, Saud
AU - Alnaimat, Fadi
AU - Qudeiri, Jaber Abu
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the financial support received from United Arab Emirate University (UAEU) research fund, Startup Grants no. 31N233 and 31N256.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - The scope of this investigation is the photocatalytic degradation performance of newly synthesized nanoparticles (NPs); namely; Fe3O4; Fe3O4@TiO2 and Fe3O4@SiO2. Non-thermal synthesis methods are used to synthesize the NPs and to explore the ferromagnetic properties of the photocatalysts. The synthesized NPs are characterized using TEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA, VSM, and surface area analysis techniques. The photocatalytic activities of Fe3O4 and Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs, put under solar irradiation, and Fe3O4@TiO2 NPs, put under UV irradiation, are examined. The efficiency in degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) pollutant is shown to be the best for Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs, then in Fe3O4 NPs, and lastly in Fe3O4@TiO2 NPs. The silica (SiO2) coating on Fe3O4 NPs significantly enhances the light absorption and is found to improve the MB degradation rate and the photoinduced charge generation and separation (i.e. it enhances the exciton lifetime). That makes the Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs promising candidates for organic pollutants removal in various environment-related applications.
AB - The scope of this investigation is the photocatalytic degradation performance of newly synthesized nanoparticles (NPs); namely; Fe3O4; Fe3O4@TiO2 and Fe3O4@SiO2. Non-thermal synthesis methods are used to synthesize the NPs and to explore the ferromagnetic properties of the photocatalysts. The synthesized NPs are characterized using TEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA, VSM, and surface area analysis techniques. The photocatalytic activities of Fe3O4 and Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs, put under solar irradiation, and Fe3O4@TiO2 NPs, put under UV irradiation, are examined. The efficiency in degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) pollutant is shown to be the best for Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs, then in Fe3O4 NPs, and lastly in Fe3O4@TiO2 NPs. The silica (SiO2) coating on Fe3O4 NPs significantly enhances the light absorption and is found to improve the MB degradation rate and the photoinduced charge generation and separation (i.e. it enhances the exciton lifetime). That makes the Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs promising candidates for organic pollutants removal in various environment-related applications.
KW - Fe3O@TiO
KW - FeO@SiO
KW - magnetic nanoparticles
KW - methylene blue
KW - photocatalytic degradation
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U2 - 10.1088/2053-1591/aacad4
DO - 10.1088/2053-1591/aacad4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049512118
SN - 2053-1591
VL - 5
JO - Materials Research Express
JF - Materials Research Express
IS - 6
M1 - 065518
ER -