Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue on magnetically separable FePc/Fe3O4 nanocomposite under visible irradiation

A novel magnetically separable photocatalyst iron phthalocyanine/Fe3O4 (FePc/Fe3O4) nanocomposite was easily prepared by an organic-inorganic complexation technique, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform-infrared (FTIR). This functional nanocomposite has been found to exhibit high catalytic activity in the presence of added hydrogen peroxide, for oxidative degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. Under these conditions, MB (10 mg/l) underwent about 78 % oxidation in 2 h, and the catalyst still retained high activity after five catalytic cycles. Intervening recovery was easily achieved by changing the external magnetic field.