Preparation and property of magnetic photocatalyst BiOCl/MnxZn1-xFe2O4

The magnetic photocatalyst BiOCl/MnxZn1-xFe2O4 was prepared by impregnation-calcination method. The structure and properties of the prepared photocatalyst were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis DRS, and VSM. MnxZn1-xFe2O4 inhibited the growth along (001) crystal face and promoted (110) crystal surface exposure of BiOCl. The asprepared magnetic composite appeared flower-like microspheres assembled with nanosheets. The average crystallite size and the nanosheet thickness range of BiOCl/MnxZn1-xFe2O4 were 57.6 and 75.7-112.2 nm, respectively. The band gap energy (E-g) of BiOCl/MnxZn1-xFe2O4 was 2.48 eV, which was lower than that of BiOCl. The saturation magnetization (Ms), coercive force (Hc), and remanent magnetization (Mr) of BiOCl/MnxZn1-xFe2O4 were respectively 4.64 emu g(-1), 50.12 G and 0.09 emu g(-1), indicating a good resistance to demagnetization and paramagnetism. The optimum synthesis condition of BiOCl/MnxZn1-xFe2O4 was obtained by orthogonal experiments, and the degradation ratio of RhB with the photocatalyst was 99.6% at 30 min. After four cycles, the degradation ratio of RhB with the recovered photocatalyst was still above 83%.