Controllable Doping of Magnetic Nanoparticles on Silica-Covered Carbon Nanotubes and Investigating the Photocatalytic Property of (Fe3O4/Sio2/MWCNT) Nanocomposite

In this paper, functionalized carbon nanotubes were covered with a biocompatible shell of silica (MWCNT/SiO2). Having a high amount of OH groups, silica shells avoid nanotubes agglomeration and are able to uniformly capture and stabilize arbitrary amounts of nanoparticles on their surface. MWCNT/SiO2 doped with different amounts of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Three samples of Fe3O4/SiO2/MWCNT nanocomposites prepared by 1, 2, and 3 weight ratio of Fe3O4 to SiO2/MWCNT are labeled S1, S2, and S3, respectively. Then, they were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The magnetic property of samples was investigated with vibrational sample magnetometer (VSM), which indicated the superparamagnetic property of nanocomposites. Due to their biocompatibility, nanocomposites were used as recyclable photocatalysts to remove methylene blue dye.