Large-scale synthesis of iron oxide/graphene hybrid materials as highly efficient photo-Fenton catalyst for water remediation

Abstract The Photo-Fenton reaction is an advanced oxidation process to break down organic pollutants in aqueous systems. Moreover, the scalable synthesis and engineering of stable catalysts with a high specific surface area is extremely important for the practical application of the Photo-Fenton process. In the current study, we developed a low-cost method for large-scale production of iron oxide/graphene nanostructures with a controllable graphene loading for the photo-Fenton reaction. Under optimal condition, high efficiencies of degradation (>99%) of methylene blue, rhodamine B, acid orange 7, and phenol at a concentration (60 mg/mL) were reached in 60 min under UV-A irradiation (1.6 mW/cm2) with mineralization of 72, 77, 82, and 48%, respectively. More importantly, the iron oxide/graphene nanocomposites exhibited good stability over a wide range of pH (from 3.0 to 9) and can be magnetically separated from the solution and repeatedly used with consistent photocatalytic performance. This enhanced removal efficiency of the iron oxide/graphene nanostructure compared to iron oxide nanoparticles is attributed to the accelerated transfer of photo-generated electrons between iron oxide and graphene and its relatively large surface area. The results demonstrate that the iron oxide/graphene system could be potentially utilized for many environmental treatment processes.