Recent progress in magnetic iron oxide–semiconductor composite nanomaterials as promising photocatalysts

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation of toxic organic pollutants is a challenging tasks in ecological and environmental protection. Recent research shows that the magnetic iron oxide–semiconductor composite photocatalytic system can effectively break through the bottleneck of single-component semiconductor oxides with low activity under visible light and the challenging recycling of the photocatalyst from the final products. With high reactivity in visible light, magnetic iron oxide–semiconductors can be exploited as an important magnetic recovery photocatalyst (MRP) with a bright future. On this regard, various composite structures, the charge-transfer mechanism and outstanding properties of magnetic iron oxide–semiconductor composite nanomaterials are sketched. The latest synthesis methods and recent progress in the photocatalytic applications of magnetic iron oxide–semiconductor composite nanomaterials are reviewed. The problems and challenges still need to be resolved and development strategies are discussed.