Comparison of TiO2 nanoparticles and Fe3O4@TiO2 core-shell nanostructures and their photocatalytic activity

Abstract

The catalytic activity is very important in the applications of gas sensors and pollutant degradation because this can increase the reactivity of sensing films and degradation rate. In this paper, we report TiO2 and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NP’s) prepared by hydrothermal and coprecipitation methods, respectively, as well as, Fe3O4@TiO2 core-shell nanostructures fabricated by the hydrothermal method. The morphological and structural characterization were studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). TiO2 nanoparticles (NP’s-TiO2) and Fe3O4 core-shell nanostructures were used as catalysts to degrade methylene blue (MB). The results showed that Fe3O4@TiO2 core-shell nanostructures have good catalytic performance because of their grainy texture, which increases the active sites.