Fullerene-modified magnetic silver phosphate (Ag 3 PO 4 /Fe 3 O 4 /C 60 ) nanocomposites: hydrothermal synthesis, characterization and study of photocatalytic, catalytic and antibacterial activities.

In this work, fullerene-modified magnetic silver phosphate (Ag 3 PO 4 /Fe 3 O 4 /C 60 ) nanocomposites with efficient visible light photocatalytic and catalytic activity were fabricated by a simple hydrothermal approach. The composition and structure of the obtained new magnetically recyclable ternary nanocomposites were completely characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area analysis, vibrating sample magnetometery (VSM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This novel magnetically recyclable heterogeneous fullerene-modified catalyst was tested for the H 2 O 2 -assisted photocatalytic degradation of MB dye under visible light. The results show that about 95% of the MB (25 mg L -1 , 50 ml) was degraded by the Ag 3 PO 4 /Fe 3 O 4 /C 60 nanocomposite within 5 h under visible light irradiation. The catalytic performance of the Ag 3 PO 4 /Fe 3 O 4 /C 60 nanocomposite was then examined for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction using NaBH 4 . This new nanocomposite showed that 4-NP was reduced to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in 98% yield with an aqueous solution of NaBH 4 . In both photocatalytic and catalytic reactions, the Ag 3 PO 4 /Fe 3 O 4 /C 60 nanocomposite exhibited higher catalytic activity than pure Ag 3 PO 4 . Moreover, the Ag 3 PO 4 /Fe 3 O 4 /C 60 nanocomposite could be magnetically separated from the reaction mixture and reused without any change in structure. The antibacterial activity of the nanocomposites was also investigated and they showed good antibacterial activity against a few human pathogenic bacteria.