Synthesis of Photocatalyst Fe3O4-CuO/activated carbon for removal of Aniline in water

In this study, the magnetic Fe
3
O
4
-CuO/AC nanocomposite was successfully investigated and conducted as photocatalyst for removal aniline as model of pollutant. Activated carbon (AC) was prepared from solid waste of palm oil shell using phosphorous acid as a chemical activation. Synthesis of photocatalyst was carried out by sol-gel method and continued by hydrothermal process. Characterization revealed that the attractive bond occurring between Fe/Cu-O and surface of activated carbon were found at around 507 and 551 cm
^-1
using FTIR. The SEM-EDX analysis showed that the particles of Fe and Cu are ununiformly dispersed on the surface with high oxygen contains. The XRD patterns shows that the average of crystal size is about 6.8 nm associated with nanocomposite material. Nanocomposite was suggested for degradation of aniline under visible light at different pH, concentration, and irradiation time. The maximum degradation rate was found about 42.6 %, 82.8 % and 64.5 % at different pH, concentration, and irradiation time, respectively. The result of this work demonstrated that the magnetic Fe
3
O
4
-CuO/AC nanocomposite was successfully characterized as photocatalyst and effectively used for degradation of aniline. as a model of pollutant in water.