Polyaniline nanotubes coated with TiO2&γ-Fe2O3@graphene oxide as a novel and effective visible light photocatalyst for removal of rhodamine B from water

• A novel TiO2&γ-Fe2O3@GO/PANI-NT nanotube is prepared as a green photocatalyst.
• Its visible light photocatalytic activity is greatly higher than that of TiO2 nanoparticles.
• The photocatalyst can be recovered easily and reused for the degradation of dye.
• The activity enhanced mechanism is discussed in detail.

Synthesis of polyaniline-nanotubes (PANI-NT), in the presence of TiO2 and γ-Fe2O3 functionalized graphene oxide (GO), gives a green and magnetically recyclable photocatalyst, TiO2&γ-Fe2O3@GO/PANI-NT. The later orchestrates 94% photocatalytic efficiency in removal of rhodamine B (RB) from water, under simulated solar light irradiation. This is far higher than the 36% observed in the presence of TiO2&γ-Fe2O3@GO alone, where PANI-NT is excluded from the structure. Morphology, composition, and structural properties of our economically sound photocatalyst are characterized by X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric, transmission electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma, RAMAN and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy.

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