Synthesis and characterization of ZnO-TiO2/CoFe2O4 hollow photocatalyst: Magnetic recovery and highly efficient photocatalytic performance

TiO2 has been known as an excellent semiconductor photocatalyst for wastewater treatment purposes. But, its visible light efficiency is low and cannot be easily recovered from the reaction mixture. In order to overcome these major disadvantages, a novel hollow magnetically recoverable ZnO-TiO2/CoFe2O4 photocatalyst is synthesized by the sol-gel and layer self-assembly methods. The synthesized photocatalyst was characterized by means of X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Fluorescence spectrometer (FL), and UV-Vis/DRS techniques. Complete degradation of rhodamine B is attained in the presence of ZnO-TiO2/CoFe2O4 photocatalyst under the irradiation of ultraviolet and sunlight within 90 min. The photocatalyst can be repeatedly reused for five times without significantly diminishing of its photocatalytic performance.