Abstract
Ternary nanocomposites of Ag3PO4-Fe3O4-GO exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity and easy catalyst separation using magnet.
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•Integrating photocatalytic Ag3PO4 into conducting GO and magnetic Fe3O4 NPs.•Enhanced photocatalytic activity of ternary nanocomposites.•Degradation of organic pollutants by light driven photo-generated electron-hole pairs.•Easy separation of catalyst using magnetic bead.•Comparing hybrid Fe3O4-GO fabrication methods with activity.
Removal of organic contaminants from aqueous environment by photo-degradation is a highly attractive and energy effective technology. Herein, we have fabricated ternary nanocomposites of Ag3PO4 by integrating into conducting GO matrix along with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles and demonstrated highly efficient photocatalytic activity and easy separation. Fe3O4-GO hybrid materials fabrication methods strongly influenced on the photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4. Integrating Ag3PO4 nanoparticles into Fe3O4-GO (Ag3O4-Fe3O4-GO-C) by co-precipitation approach exhibited stronger photocatalytic activity against Rhodamine B compared to hydrothermally prepared Fe3O4-GO (Ag3O4-Fe3O4-GO-H). Rhodamine B was degraded completely (100 %) in 15 min using Ag3O4-Fe3O4-GO-C whereas more than 45 min was required for Ag3O4-Fe3O4-GO-H. PXRD studies confirmed the formation of crystalline Fe3O4 and Ag3PO4 in both the samples. HR-TEM analysis confirmed the integration of Fe3O4 and Ag3PO4 in the GO sheets. XPS studies indicated the presence of all elements in Ag3O4-Fe3O4-GO-H and Ag3O4-Fe3O4-GO-C. Integration of magnetic Fe3O4 allowed easy separation and reusing of catalysts.