Synthesis of Fe3O4/g-C3N4 nanocomposites and their application in the photodegradation of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol under visible light

The novel, stable, and environment-friendly Fe3O4/g-C3N4 nanocomposites (10-15 nm) were synthesized with a combination of calcination and co-precipitation methods. The nanocomposites were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET). The results indicated that the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on the g-C3N4 nanosheets. The photocatalytic activity of the Fe3O4/g-C3N4 nanocomposites was investigated for the first time in terms of the photodegradation of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) under visible light. The nanocomposites with 50% g-C3N4 (mass percent) were found to have good photocatalytic activity for the photodegradation of 2,4,6-TCP. In addition, the nanocomposites could be reused several times by applying an external magnetic field to separate them from the solution. The photodegradation kinetics and a possible reaction mechanism were investigated. Hydroxyl radicals were detected during the photodegradation reactions by using fluorescence spectroscopy.