Preparation of core-shell structured Fe3O4@Sn-MOF composite and photocatalytic performance
Graphical Abstract
Introduction
Prominent environmental issues and energy crises have attracted widespread attention [1], [2], [3]. The efficient and environmentally friendly treatment technology has become a research hotspot for researchers [4]. Photocatalysis is considered to be a promising technology for the degradation of organic contaminants due to its low cost, high efficiency and almost no secondary pollution [5], [6], [7], [8]. It can capture sunlight to produce •OH and •O2− with the existence of photocatalyst [9].
In recent years, a series of semiconductor materials with photocatalytic properties have been used to remove organic pollutants in water [10]. Although semiconductor photocatalysts have been widely studied, they still have the disadvantages such as easy photo corrosion, small optical response range and difficult post-separation. For instance, ZnO has received widespread attention because of its high chemical stability, environmental protection and low cost [11], [12]. But in fact, the application of ZnO is limited, which attributes to the narrow light response range, the high electron-hole recombination rate and difficulty in recovery after reaction [13]. In terms of these shortcomings, Song et al. [14] introduced metallic Zn in the photocatalyst and synthesized core-shell Zn/ZnO nanomaterials, which obviously hindered the recombination of photo-generated charges and improved the photocatalytic efficiency. Hence, the study of photocatalysts with high efficiency, stability, visible light drive, and low electron-hole recombination rate is an important topic in the field of photocatalysis [15]. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibit the enormous advantages in photocatalysis because of their flexible structure characteristics, porous structure and chemical stability compared with traditional photocatalysts [16]. They are new types of functional inorganic-organic hybrid materials. More than 20,000 MOFs has been reported in the past decade [17]. MOFs are a type of porous crystalline material with a periodic network structure composed of metal centers and organic ligands [18]. The unique structural characteristics of MOFs materials make it beneficial to improve the problems of catalyst agglomeration and low specific surface area. However, the stability of MOFs in aqueous solution is poor, because the hydrophilic properties of the metal nodes easily lead to the hydrolysis of metal-linker coordination bonds. Sn-based materials have received extensive attention on account of their richness, environmental friendliness and low cost [19]. Sn, as a kind of hard Lewis acid, could form a strong coordination bond with hard Lewis base (such as carboxylate) to construct a rigid and interconnected frame structure [20]. For example, Wang et al. [21] used Sn-MOF as a template to synthesize SnO2 with high specific surface area for methanol sensing. Ghosh et al. [20] synthesized Sn(II)-BDC MOF by a facile hydrothermal process for adsorption and removal of toxic anionic dyes in water. Moreover, the core-shell or core-shell-like composites are regarded as one of the most effective and convenient methods to realize the multi-functional synergy [22]. Li et al. [23] synthesized core-shell Fe3O4@MIL-100(Fe) for photocatalytic degradation of diclofenac sodium and achieved good removal effect. The core of metal or metal-containing nanoparticles is encapsulated in the MOFs shell, which can greatly improve its anti-agglomeration stability and avert undesirable dissolution or photo-corrosion in the photocatalytic process [16]. In addition, Fe3O4 nanoparticle has the advantages of magnetic properties, richness and low toxicity, which is regarded as a promising metal oxide [24], [25], [26], [27]. The incorporation of Fe3O4 into MOF-based photocatalysts is beneficial to the separation and recovery of composite.
Therefore, a kind of composite with Fe3O4 as magnetic core and Sn-MOF as shell was synthesized in this work. The framework of Sn-MOF was synthesized by Sn as inorganic metal ion and terephthalic acid as organic linker. The magnetism coming from Fe3O4 made it separate quickly from the reaction process. The morphology and structure of the prepared Fe3O4@Sn-MOF were characterized by different ways. The photocatalytic properties and stability of the composite were evaluated with AR3R as the target pollutant.
Section snippets
Chemicals
Ferroferric oxide (Fe3O4) was purchased from Shanghai Aladdin Biochemical Technology Co. Ltd. (China). Stannous chloride dihydrate (SnCl2·2H2O) was purchased from Tianjin Oubokai Chemical Co. Ltd. (China). Other chemicals were purchased from Tianjin Yongda chemical reagent Co. Ltd. (China). The reagents are analytically pure and do not require further purification.
Synthesis of photocatalyst
Fe3O4@Sn-MOF composite was prepared by simple hydrothermal synthesis. SnCl2·2H2O (0.5815 g) and terephthalic acid (0.4280 g) were
Material characterization
The crystal structure of Fe3O4@Sn-MOF was confirmed by XRD analysis. The result in Fig. 1a presented that diffraction peaks of the sample at 18.3°, 30.1°, 35.4°, 42.1°, 53.1°, 56.9° and 62.5° are related to the (111), (220), (311), (112), (400), (511) and (440) lattice plane of Fe3O4@Sn-MOF, respectively. Among them, diffraction peaks at 30.1°, 35.4°, 56.9° and 62.5° are matched with the cubic Fe3O4 (JCPDS No.19-0629) [28]. The peaks at 18.3° and 53.1° belong to the diffraction peak of Sn-MOF
Conclusion
This article provides a new, efficient and stable Fe3O4@Sn-MOF composite, which is used for the degradation of AR3R. The photocatalytic performance of Fe3O4@Sn-MOF was affected by different degradation conditions. When the dosage of the catalyst was 6.7 g/L, the initial concentration of AR3R was 50 mg/L and the initial pH of AR3R was 3.0, the degradation efficiency of AR3R with Fe3O4@Sn-MOF as the photocatalyst was the best. The outstanding photocatalytic activity of the Fe3O4@Sn-MOF composite
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Lin Yue: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-reviewing & editing. Yunmeng Cao: Data curation, Writing-original draft. Yonghui Han: Investigation, Formal analysis. Zaixing Li: Project administration, Funding acquisition, Resources. Xiao Luo: Validation, Software. Yanfang Liu: Visualization, Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The project was funded by Key Research and Development Program of Hebei Province (Grant no. 20373602D). The authors also acknowledge the financial support of Five Platform Funds of Hebei University of Science and Technology (Grant no. 2016PT42).
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