Visible light active TiO2/CS/Fe3O4 for nitrophenol degradation: Studying impact of TiO2, CS and Fe3O4 loading on the optical and photocatalytic performance of nanocomposite

Conventional methods for the nitrophenols (NP) treatment only transform the contaminant from one phase to another and require long incubation time. Therefore, in this paper, highly active TiO2/chitosan/Fe3O4 nanocomposites were synthesized and optimized by varying TiO2, chitosan (CS), and Fe3O4 loading. Each individual component exhibits a strong influence on particle size, magnetic and optical properties of the resultant composite. The optimum loading was achieved in TCF2 composite which displays a remarkable improvement in charge carrier separation and bandgap narrowing (2.85 eV) than all other composites. The improved optical properties of TCF2 are due to its larger crystallite size (24.5 nm) than other composites, as crystallite size is inversely related to the bandgap of the sample. The optimum photocatalytic activities were observed for TCF2 with >90% degradation for 180 min of under solar light exposure. Thus, the photocatalyst system has an advantage on easy recoverability potential to be a new appealing technology for NP treatment.