Preparation and characterization of fullerene (C60)-modified BiVO4/Fe3O4 nanocomposite by hydrothermal method and study of its visible light photocatalytic and catalytic activity

In this study, BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite has been synthesized for the first time using a facile and feasible hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and N₂ adsorption-desorption analysis were utilized to analyze the structure, morphology, size, and the magnetic property of the synthesized nanocomposite. The photocatalytic activity of the magnetic BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite was investigated for the degradation of methylene blue. The results showed that 84% degradation of methylene blue (MB) (25 mg/L) solution within 5 h with a rate constant equal to 0.0049 min^?1 in the presence of BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite and H₂O₂ (1 mL, 30%) under visible light irradiation. The effects of BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ dosage, H₂O₂ amount dye initial concentration and C₆₀ amount on the efficiency of degradation process were investigated. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of the magnetic BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite was investigated for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) using sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) in the aqueous solution and at room temperature. The results showed that BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite exhibited an excellent performance for the reduction of 4-NP with 97% conversion into its corresponding amino derivative within 38 min with a constant rate equal to 0.0775 min^?1. As indicated by the results, the magnetic BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite exhibited much higher photocatalytic and catalytic activity than BiVO₄/ C_60, BiVO₄/Fe₃O_4, and pure BiVO₄. Moreover, the BiVO₄/Fe₃O₄/C₆₀ nanocomposite could be magnetically separated from the reaction mixture due to the presence of the Fe₃O₄ and reused without any change in structure.