Room-Temperature Self-Assembled Preparation of Porous ZnFe₂O₄/MIL-100(Fe) Nanocomposites and Their Visible-Light Derived Photocatalytic Properties

Herein, a facile self-assembly synthesis of magnetic porous ZnFe₂O₄/MIL-100(Fe) composites by slowly oxidizing Fe²⁺ to Fe³⁺ was reported. By this method, ZnFe₂O₄/MIL-100(Fe) composites with a particle size of about 300 nm can be obtained at room temperature and pressure. The efficacy of the products was evaluated for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. It was found that the introduction of MIL-100(Fe) can not only significantly improve the adsorption capacity of composites and provide more active sites for the degradation process, but also form heterojunctions with ZnFe₂O₄ particles to efficiently promote separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the existence of ZnFe₂O₄ provides good magnetic recovery property and photochemical stability to composite samples. These results indicate that ZnFe₂O₄/MIL-100(Fe) has obvious application potential in photocatalytic wastewater treatment.