Highly Efficient and Easily Recoverable Ag3PO4–TiO2–Fe2O3 Magnetic Photocatalyst with Wide Spectral Range for Water Treatment

Abstract A new magnetic Ag 3 PO 4 –TiO 2 –Fe 2 O 3 photocatalyst (Ag–Ti–Fe) has been synthesized by a solid-state blending method. The sample was analyzed by XRD, FT-IR, and VSM, and its photocatalytic performance in treatment of simulated dye-contaminated wastewater was evaluated in photocatalytic tests. SEM and FT-IR results confirmed that Ag–Ti–Fe catalyst was composed of Ag 3 PO 4 , anatase and maghemite. Results of photocatalytic tests revealed that Ag–Ti–Fe exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity on water treatment compared with contrastive samples whether the light source was UV or visible light, and the ultimate degradation efficiency of orange II reached 86.71 and 78.13%, respectively. Ag–Ti–Fe could decompose chemically stable groups, rather than simply destroy chromogenic azo double bonds, and it could further effectively remove methyl orange, rhodamine B, methylene blue from water, respectively. VSM results showed that the saturation magnetization of Ag–Ti–Fe was 4.80 emu/g, and it could be separated simply and quickly with the magnetic field.