Synthesis of a novel visible light responsive γ-Fe2O3/SiO2/C-TiO2 magnetic nanocomposite for water treatment

This work investigates the preparation of a magnetically recoverable photocatalytic nanocomposite of maghemite nanoparticles coated with silica and carbon doped titanium dioxide. The novel nanocomposite boasts the advantages of efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in water and ease of recovery of the fine particles after water treatment. The photocatalytic nanocomposite was successfully synthesized through a stepwise approach via co-precipitation and sol-gel methods. Characterisation by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) substantiated the existence of the intended structure of the nanocomposite and the particles were found to be in the size range of 15–22 nm with a quasi-spherical shape. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis revealed an average surface area of 55.20 m2/g, which is higher than that of commercial TiO2 (Degussa P25, 50.00 m2/g), and an average pore diameter of 8.36 nm. A 5 ppm methylene blue solution was degraded with an efficiency of 96.8% after 3 h of solar irradiation, which was 19.7% greater than using the same photo-catalyst under strict UV light irradiation. Photo-catalysis using these nanoparticles was observed to be very effective. The prepared novel visible light active nanocomposite has great potential for incorporation into water treatment systems because it exhibits good stability and magnetism, as well as high photocatalytic efficiency.