Preparation and characterization of bifunctional, Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposites and their use as photocatalysts

Bifunctional magnetic-optical Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposites with different molar ratio were successfully synthesized by a facile two-step strategy. Compared with the other methods, it was found to be mild, inexpensive, green, convenient and efficient. Fe3O4 nanocrystal was used as seed for the deposit and growth of ZnO nanoparticle. A series of the characterizations manifested that the combination of Fe3O4 with ZnO nanoparticles was successful. Photocatalytic activity studies confirmed that as-prepared nanocomposites had excellent photodegradating behavior to Methyl Orange (MO) compared to the pure ZnO nanoparticles. The results showed that the degradation percentage of MO was about 93.6% for 1 h when the amount of catalyst was 0.51 g L−1 and initial concentration of MO was 6 × 10−5 mol L−1 in the pH 7 solution. Moreover, the kinetics of photocatalytic degradation reaction could be expressed by the first-order reaction kinetic model. Furthermore, the Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposites could be also served as convenient recyclable photocatalysts because of their magnetic properties.