Dual sensitization effect and conductive structure of Fe₃O₄@mTiO₂/C photocatalyst towards superior photodegradation activity for bisphenol A under visible light

In this paper, we prepared Fe₃O₄@mTiO₂/C (the mesoporous TiO₂ denoted as mTiO₂) photocatalyst via a simple synthetic method, and it exhibits strong light response under visible light region because of the dual sensitization effect of Fe₃O₄ and carbon. In addition, the composite photocatalyst also has double conductivity, which is beneficial to the transfer and separation of charge carriers due to the synergetic effect of Fe₃O₄, carbon and mTiO₂. As a consequence, the double conductive structure Fe₃O₄@mTiO₂/C photocatalyst displays prominent photocatalytic activity in degradation of BPA under visible light. Furthermore, the photocatalyst not only was recycled easily to reduce the secondary pollution of the environment but also had a superior stability. This work may provide a new inspiration toward constructing dual sensitization and double conductive structure with other semiconductor photocatalyst to effectively improve the photocatalytic activity under visible light for practical application.