Facile fabrication of heterostructured cubic-CuFe 2 O 4 /ZnO nanofibers (c-CFZs) with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity and magnetic separation

• Published in: RSC advances 2016, Vol.6 (111), p.110155-110163
• Main Authors: Lu, Chuchu, Bao, Zhimin, Qin, Chuanxiang, Dai, Lixing, Zhu, Aiping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/C6RA23970F

A novel p–n heterojunction photocatalyst of cubic-CuFe 2 O 4 /ZnO nanofibers (c-CFZs) was fabricated through a simple and economical technique of electrospinning technique combined with coprecipitation method. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The prepared cubic-CuFe 2 O 4 (c-CuFe 2 O 4 ) nanofibers revealed lengths of several micrometers and were composed of many c-CuFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles about 15–20 nm in size. After coprecipitation, the surface of c-CuFe 2 O 4 nanofibers was densely covered with ZnO particles. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by monitoring the degradation of the dye model Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation. Compared with pure ZnO and c-CuFe 2 O 4 , the c-CFZs exhibited a better photocatalytic performance. The enhanced activity could be attributed to the extended absorption in the visible light region resulting from c-CuFe 2 O 4 and the effective separation of photo-generated carriers driven by the photo-induced potential difference generated at the p–n heterojunction photocatalyst of c-CFZs. Furthermore, these nanofibers could be recollected easily with a magnet after the photocatalytic process, avoiding secondary pollution of treated water effectively.