Zhijun Luo, Xiangyang Wu et al. have recently developed a facile one-step route to generate magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres exhibiting excellent photodegradation properties, without the need of H2O2 or UV light.
Wastewater can contain many contaminants including a wide range of organic material; the photo-Fenton reaction is a highly efficient way to oxidise these pollutants using Fe3+, H2O2 and UV light to generate .OH radicals.
The materials reported here are highly water-dispersible, easy to make and operate under visible light across a wide pH range. The magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres can also be recovered magnetically making this a convenient reaction to use.
A schematic illustration of the magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres (MCRCS) generating hydroxyl radicals under visible light in water.
You can take a look at how the particles particles behave under applied magnetic fields in these videos, pure nano magnetite in water and magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres in water.
You can also download the full communication, which is free to access for 4 weeks
A visible-light-driven solid state photo-Fenton reagent based on magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres
Zhijun Luo, Hongjun Tang, Lingling Qu, Tingting Han and Xiangyang Wu
