Abstract
The particle size of Fe3O4 nanoparticles is controlled using a simple oxidation–precipitation method without any surfactant. The structure, morphology and physical properties of the synthesized Fe3O4 NPs were characterized using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and vibrating sample magnetometer. As-prepared magnetite samples exhibited spherical morphology with average diameters of 30, 70, 250, and 600 nm, respectively. Activity of the synthesized Fe3O4 NPs was evaluated for the Fenton-like reaction, using rhodamine B (RhB) as a model molecule. The results showed that catalytic activity increases with the reduced particle size. The significant higher catalytic activity of the fine Fe3O4 NPs mainly originated from the higher specific surface area, due to the increase in exposed active site number and adsorption capacity. The reusability of 30 nm Fe3O4 NPs was also investigated after three successive runs, in which the RhB degradation performances showed a slight difference with the first oxidation cycle. This investigation is of great significance for the promising application of the heterogeneous Fenton catalyst with enhanced activity in the oxidative degradation of organic pollutants.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
K.H. Kim and S.K. Ihm: Heterogeneous catalytic wet air oxidation of refractory organic pollutants in industrial wastewaters: A review. J. Hazard. Mater. 186 (1), 16 (2011).
P.V. Nidheesh: Heterogeneous Fenton catalysts for the abatement of organic pollutants from aqueous solution: A review. RSC Adv. 5 (51), 40552 (2015).
R. Matta, K. Hanna, and S. Chiron: Fenton-like oxidation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene using different iron minerals. Sci. Total Environ. 385 (1–3), 242 (2007).
L. Xu and J. Wang: A heterogeneous Fenton-like system with nanoparticulate zero-valent iron for removal of 4-chloro-3-methyl phenol. J. Hazard. Mater. 186 (1), 256 (2011).
L. Chen, C. Deng, F. Wu, and N. Deng: Decolorization of the azo dye Orange II in a montmorillonite/H2O2 system. Desalination 281, 306 (2011).
L. Gu, N. Zhu, H. Guo, S. Huang, Z. Lou, and H. Yuan: Adsorption and Fenton-like degradation of naphthalene dye intermediate on sewage sludge derived porous carbon. J. Hazard. Mater. 246–247, 145 (2013).
S. Song, H. Yang, R. Rao, H. Liu, and A. Zhang: High catalytic activity and selectivity for hydroxylation of benzene to phenol over multi-walled carbon nanotubes supported Fe3O4 catalyst. Appl. Catal., A 375 (2), 265 (2010).
G.M. Ucoski, F.S. Nunes, G. DeFreitas-Silva, Y.M. Idemori, and S. Nakagaki: Metalloporphyrins immobilized on silica-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles: Magnetically recoverable catalysts for the oxidation of organic substrates. Appl. Catal., A 459, 121 (2013).
L. Gao, J. Zhuang, L. Nie, J. Zhang, Y. Zhang, N. Gu, T. Wang, J. Feng, D. Yang, S. Perrett, and X. Yan: Intrinsic peroxidase-like activity of ferromagnetic nanoparticles. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2 (9), 577 (2007).
J. Zhang, J. Zhuang, L. Gao, Y. Zhang, N. Gu, J. Feng, D. Yang, J. Zhu, and X. Yan: Decomposing phenol by the hidden talent of ferromagnetic nanoparticles. Chemosphere 73 (9), 1524 (2008).
X. Xue, K. Hanna, M. Abdelmoula, and N. Deng: Adsorption and oxidation of PCP on the surface of magnetite: Kinetic experiments and spectroscopic investigations. Appl. Catal., B 89 (3–4), 432 (2009).
S.P. Sun and A.T. Lemley: p-Nitrophenol degradation by a heterogeneous Fenton-like reaction on nano-magnetite: Process optimization, kinetics, and degradation pathways. J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem. 349 (1–2), 71 (2011).
L. Xu and J. Wang: Fenton-like degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol using Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles. Appl. Catal., B 123–124, 117 (2012).
N. Wang, L. Zhu, D. Wang, M. Wang, Z. Lin, and H. Tang: Sono-assisted preparation of highly-efficient peroxidase-like Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles for catalytic removal of organic pollutants with H2O2. Ultrason. Sonochem. 17 (3), 526 (2010).
X. Liang, Z. He, Y. Zhong, W. Tan, H. He, P. Yuan, J. Zhu, and J. Zhang: The effect of transition metal substitution on the catalytic activity of magnetite in heterogeneous Fenton reaction: In interfacial view. Colloids Surf., A 435, 28 (2013).
F.F. Peng, Y. Zhang, and N. Gu: Size-dependent peroxidase-like catalytic activity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Chin. Chem. Lett. 19 (6), 730 (2008).
Y.F. Shen, J. Tang, Z.H. Nie, Y.D. Wang, Y. Ren, and L. Zuo: Tailoring size and structural distortion of Fe3O4 nanoparticles for the purification of contaminated water. Bioresour. Technol. 100 (18), 4139 (2009).
L. Hou, Q. Zhang, F. Jérôme, D. Duprez, H. Zhang, and S. Royer: Shape-controlled nanostructured magnetite-type materials as highly efficient Fenton catalysts. Appl. Catal., B 144, 739 (2014).
G. Zhang, F. Qie, J. Hou, S. Luo, L. Luo, X. Sun, and T. Tan: One-pot solvothermal method to prepare functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles for bioseparation. J. Mater. Res. 27 (7), 1006 (2012).
S. Asuha, B. Suyala, X. Siqintana, and S. Zhao: Direct synthesis of Fe3O4 nanopowder by thermal decomposition of Fe-urea complex and its properties. J. Alloys Compd. 509 (6), 2870 (2011).
A. Prakash, A.V. McCormick, and M.R. Zachariah: Aero-sol−gel synthesis of nanoporous iron-oxide particles: a potential oxidizer for nanoenergetic materials. Chem. Mater. 16 (8), 1466 (2004).
K. Petcharoen and A. Sirivat: Synthesis and characterization of magnetite nanoparticles via the chemical co-precipitation method. Mater. Sci. Eng., B 177 (5), 421 (2012).
L. Li, J. Ding, and J. Xue: A facile green approach for synthesizing monodisperse magnetite nanoparticles. J. Mater. Res. 25 (5), 810 (2010).
A. Yan, X. Liu, G. Qiu, H. Wu, R. Yi, N. Zhang, and J. Xua: Solvothermal synthesis and characterization of size-controlled Fe3O4 nanoparticles. J. Alloys Compd. 458 (1–2), 487 (2008).
H. Meng, Z. Zhang, F. Zhao, T. Qiu, and J. Yang: Orthogonal optimization design for preparation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles via chemical coprecipitation. Appl. Surf. Sci. 280, 679 (2013).
Y. Zhang, W. Shi, D. Feng, H. Ma, Y. Liang, and J. Zuo: Application of rhodamine B thiolactone to fluorescence imaging of Hg2+ in Arabidopsis thaliana. Sens. Actuators, B 153 (1), 261 (2011).
B. Chai, F. Zou, and W. Chen: Facile synthesis of Ag3PO4/C3N4 composites with improved visible light photocatalytic activity. J. Mater. Res. 30 (8), 1128 (2015).
X. Xue, K. Hanna, and N. Deng: Fenton-like oxidation of Rhodamine B in the presence of two types of iron (II, III) oxide. J. Hazard. Mater. 166 (1), 407 (2009).
P.P. Gan and S.F.Y. Li: Efficient removal of rhodamine B using a rice hull-based silica supported iron catalyst by Fenton-like process. Chem. Eng. J. 229, 351 (2013).
X. Wang, Y. Pan, Z. Zhu, and J. Wu: Efficient degradation of rhodamine B using Fe-based metallic glass catalyst by Fenton-like process. Chemosphere 117, 638 (2014).
S. Liu, F. Lu, R. Xing, and J.J. Zhu: Structural effects of Fe3O4 nanocrystals on peroxidase-like activity. Chem. — Eur. J. 17 (2), 620 (2011).
W. Yu, T. Zhang, J. Zhang, X. Qiao, L. Yang, and Y. Liu: The synthesis of octahedral nanoparticles of magnetite. Mater. Lett. 60 (24), 2998 (2006).
S. Yang, H. He, D. Wu, D. Chen, X. Liang, Z. Qin, M. Fan, J. Zhu, and P. Yuan: Decolorization of methylene blue by heterogeneous Fenton reaction using Fe3−xTixO4 (0 < x < 0.78) at neutral pH values. Appl. Catal., B 89 (3–4), 527 (2009).
K. Tao, H. Dou, and K. Sun: Interfacial coprecipitation to prepare magnetite nanoparticles: Concentration and temperature dependence. Colloids Surf., A 320 (1–3), 115 (2008).
G.F. Goya, T.S. Berquó, F.C. Fonseca, and M.P. Morales: Static and dynamic magnetic properties of spherical magnetite nanoparticles. J. Appl. Phys. 94 (5), 3520 (2003).
D. Wan, W. Li, G. Wang, K. Chen, L. Lu, and Q. Hu: Adsorption and heterogeneous degradation of rhodamine B on the surface of magnetic bentonite material. Appl. Surf. Sci. 349, 988 (2015).
T. Yamashita and P. Hayes: Analysis of XPS spectra of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions in oxide materials. Appl. Surf. Sci. 254 (8), 2441 (2008).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2014CFB810), Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20114219110002) and Science and Technology Project (Major) of Jiangxi Province (20152ACG70003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary data for
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wan, D., Li, W., Wang, G. et al. Size-controllable synthesis of Fe3O4 nanoparticles through oxidation–precipitation method as heterogeneous Fenton catalyst. Journal of Materials Research 31, 2608–2616 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.285
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.285