Composite photocatalysts containing MIL-53(Fe) as a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst for the decolorization of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation.

Abstract The development of composite photocatalyst is a promising direction for improving photocatalytic performance of decomposition of organic dyes. This study aimed to fabricate two composite photocatalysts using either Fe 3 O 4 or NiFe 2 O 4 with MIL-53(Fe) as heterogeneous catalysts for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation by a 40 W compact fluorescent lamp. The physicochemical, the surface, the magnetic and the energy band gap of the photocatalyst were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, Raman, FE-SEM, UV–vis DRS, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and VSM. From the photocatalytic activities test results, the NiFe 2 O 4 -doped MIL-53(Fe) sample expressed a higher photocatalytic degradation capacity of RhB than that of Fe 3 O 4 /MIL-53(Fe) sample, significantly better than that of the bare of Fe 3 O 4 , NiFe 2 O 4 , and MIL-53(Fe). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]