Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4/Ag3PO4: A magnetic, highly efficient visible-light photocatalyst and the Z-scheme mechanism for removal of anionic dye and tetracycline hydrochloride

The magnetic Co 0.5 Zn 0.5 Fe 2 O 4 incorporated Ag 3 PO 4 photocatalysts were fabricated by facile sol-gel and hydrothermal route. The resulting Co 0.5 Zn 0.5 Fe 2 O 4 /Ag 3 PO 4 composites were characterized by XRD , 1 SEM, 2 UV–vis DRS , 3 FT-IR 4 and VSM. 5 The results indicated that the magnetically separable composites with good dispersity showed a strong absorption in the uv–vis region and the saturation magnetization was 85.25 emu g −1 . Anionic dye methyl orange (MO) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) were used to evaluate the activity of the photocatalysts . The result revealed that the magnetic composites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability under the visible light irradiation. The ·OH and ·O 2 - radicals were found to be the major active species during the photodegradation of TCH, while·O 2 - played the important role in photodegrading MO. And a Z-scheme mechanism for the enhanced photocatalytic process was proposed.