Preparation of Cu2O-Fe3O4@carbon nanocomposites derived from natural polymer hydrogel template for organic pollutants degradation

Abstract In this paper, a novel preparation method was applied to fabricate 3D porous Cu 2 O-Fe 3 O 4 @carbon nanocomposites (Cu 2 O-Fe 3 O 4 @CN) using natural polymer hydrogel. The polymer hydrogel was used as template to immobilize cupric ions and ferrous ions first, it was then followed by a series of preparing processes including sedimentation, desiccation and calcination. Characterization analysis including TEM, EDS, XPS, XRD and VSM were employed to characterize the morphologies and structures of Cu 2 O-Fe 3 O 4 @CN . The photocatalytic performance of Cu 2 O-Fe 3 O 4 @CN for organic contaminant degradation under visible light irradiation was also evaluated. The effect of different preparation conditions on the morphology structure and photocatalytic performance of Cu 2 O-Fe 3 O 4 @CN was investigated and the optimal parameters were determined. After four repetitive use, the degradation efficiency only decreased from 95.1% to 90.1%, which suggested the great potential of Cu 2 O-Fe 3 O 4 @CN in industrialization and commercialization. Cu 2 O; Fe 3 O 4 ; Nano materials; Sodium alginate; Photocatalysis; Synergistic effect