Fabrication of NiFe2O4@ Al-MCM-41/Cu2O nanocomposite with enhanced photodegradation performance

Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants by using semiconductor photocatalysts is one of growing interests for water purification [1]. Because of their low cost, high stability and easy availability.Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) with a direct band gap of 2.2 eV could be activated by visible light [2]. But one the main problem to use Cu2O for photocatalytic degradation is recycling it from the reaction mixture at the end of reaction.Then magnetic nanoparticles are attractive candidates for supporting, semiconductors, that can easily separate by an external magnet.On the other hand porous material such as MCM-41 has large surface area and can absorb large amount of pollutant.In this study, NiFe2O4@ Al-MCM-41 magnetic nanocamposite with core-shell structure was synthesis.Cu2O nanoparticles were located on the magnetic nanocomposite by ascorbic acid as reducing agent.The photocatalytic activity of NiFe2O4@Al-MCM-41/Cu2O was investigated in MB dye degradation as a model of pollutant.The new nanocomposite was characterized by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated the presence of Cu2O nanoparticles in core-shell. The nanocomposite enhanced the removal of MB dye in the absence of H2O2.