Microwave-Assisted fabrication of recyclable CdS/Fe₃O₄/rGO photocatalysts to improve the photocatalytic performance under visible light

A unique CdS/Fe₃O₄/rGO composite photocatalyst is successfully synthesized by the microwave method. It displays promising photocatalytic activity towards the photo-degrading of tetracycline (TC) in aqueous solution, the degradation rate of TC is 69% with adding 0.1g CdS/Fe₃O₄/rGO photocatalyst into 20mg/L tetracycline for 2h under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the mechanism was systematically investigated by active species trapping experiment. It can be known that e-was the major active species in the photodegradation process and the possible process of charge transfer for CdS/Fe₃O₄/rGO was proposed based on the experimental results. The as-prepared samples were carefully evaluated by XRD, TEM, XPS, VSM, PL spectra, Raman spectrometer.