Facile preparation of ferric giniite hollow microspheres and their enhanced Fenton-like catalytic performance under visible-light irradiation

Xuhong Zhang; Yu Zhang; Lin Gao; Haitao Yu; Yu Wei

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2015.03.043

Facile preparation of ferric giniite hollow microspheres and their enhanced Fenton-like catalytic performance under visible-light irradiation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2015 Aug 15:452:24-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.03.043. Epub 2015 Apr 13.

Authors

Xuhong Zhang¹, Yu Zhang², Lin Gao², Haitao Yu³, Yu Wei⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China; Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China.
² College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China. Electronic address: haitaoyu@mail.hebtu.edu.cn.
⁴ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China. Electronic address: weiyuhebtu@163.com.

PMID: 25910223
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.03.043

Abstract

Ferric giniite hollow spheres with diameters of about 1.2-1.4 μm were successfully fabricated with a one-pot hydrothermal process. All chemicals used were low-cost compounds and environmentally benign. The obtained products were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that as-prepared ferric giniite hollow spheres exhibited much enhanced photocatalytic activity (99.5%) for the degradation of methylene blue in the presence of visible light irradiation and H2O2. Experimental results indicate that the existence of the carbonaceous shells enhances the photocatalytic activity of ferric giniite hollow spheres via the synergistic effect between carbon and ferric giniite, such as improving the adsorption, absorbing more light and exhibiting high activity to produce hydroxyl radicals through catalytic decomposition of H2O2.

Keywords: Carbonaceous materials; Fenton-like; Ferric giniite; Photocatalytic activity.