Preparation and photocatalytic characteristics of core-shell structure TiO2/BaFe12O19 nanoparticles

Abstract A core-shell structure TiO2/BaFe12O19 composite nanoparticles that can photodegrade organic pollutants in the dispersion system effectively and can be recycled easily by a magnetic field is reported in this paper. The obtained samples were characterized by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TiO2/BaFe12O19 magnetic photocatalyst is composed of two parts: (1) TiO2 shell used for photocatalysis and (2) BaFe12O19 core for separation by the magnetic field. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared magnetic photocatalyst increased with increasing the thickness of TiO2 coating layer. On the other hand, the saturation magnetizations of titania-coated BaFe12O19 nanoparticles decreased with increasing thickness of the titania coating, while the coercivity does not show any change after coating.