Facile fabrication of hierarchical porous ZnO/Fe3O4 composites with enhanced magnetic, photocatalytic and antibacterial properties

• Published in: Materials letters Vol. 228; pp. 207 - 211
• Main Authors: Sin, Jin-Chung, Tan, Shao-Qi, Quek, Jian-Ai, Lam, Sze-Mun, Mohamed, Abdul Rahman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Composite materials; Magnetic materials; Microstructure; Optical materials and properties; Semiconductors; Optical materials and properties; Magnetic materials; Composite materials; Semiconductors; Microstructure
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2018.06.027

•Facile surfactant-free fabrication of hierarchical porous ZnO/Fe3O4 composites.•Structural, optical and morphological characterization of prepared ZnO samples.•ZnO/Fe3O4 showed better photoactivity for phenol degradation under visible light.•ZnO/Fe3O4 can be easily recovered by a magnetic field along with good reusability.•Excellent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli over ZnO/Fe3O4. Hierarchical porous ZnO/Fe3O4 composites were fabricated through a facile surfactant-free method. The as-prepared samples were characterized using different instrumental techniques. The X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray results showed that the as-prepared samples were two-phase photocatalysts consisted of ZnO and Fe3O4. The UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy result indicated that the addition of Fe3O4 modified the optical properties of the photocatalysts. Under visible light irradiation, the ZnO/Fe3O4 exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance for phenol degradation and Escherichia coli inactivation compared to ZnO. The photocatalytic enhancement of ZnO/Fe3O4 was attributed to the effective electron-hole pairs separation as verified by the photoluminescence spectra. The ZnO/Fe3O4 also exhibited magnetic properties, which can easily be recovered using an external magnet along with good reusability.