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Synthesis of magnetic g-C3N4/NiFe2O4 nanocomposites for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance

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Abstract

A magnetically separable photocatalytic g-C3N4/NiFe2O4 nanocomposite was obtained via a two-step method. In the first step, the magnetic NiFe2O4 nanoparticles were acquired in a few minutes by ionic liquid self-combustion approach which significantly reduced the synthesis time of nanocomposites. Besides, the research of g-C3N4/NiFe2O4 nanocomposites for the visible-light-driven degradation of methylene blue in the absence of H2O2 was detailed. Compared with pure g-C3N4 and NiFe2O4, the as-prepared nanocomposites with NiFe2O4 doping of 12% manifested the enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability after three cycles for degrading methylene blue, and the photocatalytic process followed first-order reaction kinetics. Trapping experiments demonstrated that the H+ and OH scavengers are the main active species and O2 has a small effect for visible-light-driven degradation of methylene blue.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (Grant no. B2018208090), Young Talents Program in University of Hebei Province, China (no. BJ2019002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51802075, 51901115), and the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (ZR2019PEM001 and ZR2019BB009).

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Correspondence to Xuemin Chen.

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Chen, X., He, M., He, G. et al. Synthesis of magnetic g-C3N4/NiFe2O4 nanocomposites for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance. Appl Nanosci 10, 4465–4473 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01362-6

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