Synthesis of magnetic porous Fe3O4/C/Cu2O composite as an excellent photo-Fenton catalyst under neutral condition

Magnetic porous Fe3O4/C/Cu2O composites were prepared by a simple two-step process. Porous Fe3O4/C was synthesized via calcining iron tartrate precursor and then Cu2O was composited with Fe3O4/C by a precipitation-reduction method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) elemental mapping. Results show that Fe3O4/C has porous nanorod structure, which is composed of numerous small nanoparticles of about 50 nm. Fe3O4 and carbon are uniformly distributed in the Fe3O4/C/Cu2O composite and Cu2O is dispersed on the surface of Fe3O4/C. Fe3O4/C/Cu2O composite exhibits excellent photo-Fenton catalytic performance for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation and neutral pH conditions, and MB (100 mg/L) could be almost completely removed within 60 min. The composite shows good recyclability and could be conveniently separated by an applied magnetic field. These results demonstrate that the Fe3O4/C/Cu2O composite is a powerful Fenton-like catalyst for degradation of organic pollutants from wastewater. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.