Abstract
The preparation of a magnetic core-shell Z-scheme heterojunction Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material by sol–gel and hydrothermal methods is described. The catalytic activity of the composite photocatalyst doped with metal Ce and loaded with graphene is significantly improved. Under standard experimental conditions (pH = 7, [methylene blue] = 10 mg L−1, magnetic composite photocatalyst concentration = 0.1 g 50 mL−1), the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite photocatalyst lead to a maximum degradation of methylene blue of 98.2% in 120 min.
Introduction
With the continuous advancement of the industrial revolution, the problem of water pollution has become increasingly serious. Polluted water sources seriously endanger human health, and it is extremely important to solve the problem of water pollution. 1 There are many types of pollutants in water sources, such as organic pollutants, inorganic pollutants, toxic metal ions, and harmful nitrogen oxide. Traditional sewage treatment methods are low in efficiency, high in cost, and unselective towards different pollutants. In particular, there are secondary pollution problems. Therefore, sewage treatment has not been well solved. 2 As early as 1972, Fujishima and Honda discovered that TiO2 in photocells could participate in a redox process with water to release clean energy (H2/O2) when exposed to light. 3 In 1976, Carey and coworkers 4 used TiO2 semiconductors to degrade organic pollutants. Since then, photocatalytic oxidation has entered a stage of rapid development as a new water treatment technology.
TiO2 as a photocatalyst has the characteristics of good stability, low cost, strong catalytic activity, and is not harmful to the environment. The photocatalytic efficiency of nano titanium dioxide is related to the crystal phase, particle size, and specific surface area. It has been demonstrated that anatase is the most stable and effective polymorph on a nanoscale due to its relatively low surface energy.5–7 However, due to the large band gap of TiO2, the high recombination rate of photogenerated carriers, and difficult to recycle characteristics, the application of TiO2 in water treatment is limited. At present, a small amount of doping of TiO2 with transition-metal lanthanide series and actinide series metals can reduce the band gap width of TiO2, and also make it photo-responsive in the visible light region, thereby improving the utilization of sunlight. 8 Studies on doping of transition metals, including Ce, Co, Ni, and so on, have been reported, which show the modification effect of Ce is better compared to those of other transition metals.9–13 In addition, the main disadvantage of TiO2 as a photocatalyst is that it is difficult to completely recover from wastewater. At present, several research groups have developed TiO2-based magnetic catalysts that can be quickly separated from wastewater.14,15 However, the magnetic core can reduce the photocatalytic efficiency. 16 In fact, SiO2, as a magnetic isolation material, can be used as a protective film to avoid interactions between the magnetic core and the TiO2 coating.17–19 Meanwhile, graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial with high specific surface area and high conductivity.20,21 It can improve the migration efficiency of photogenerated carriers, and therefore, the recombination of photogenerated carriers can be effectively suppressed.
In this research, a Z-scheme heterojunction Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO core-shell material has been prepared by sol–gel and hydrothermal methods. TiO2 doped with the rare earth metal Ce is loaded on graphene oxide to improve the photocatalytic activity. CeO2 acts as an electron receiver to reduce electron-hole recombination, while graphene has good electrical conductivity and a large specific surface area. It can increase the contact area between pollutants and the catalyst and improve the catalytic activity of the catalyst. The principle is shown in Figure 1.

Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO the morphology.
Results and discussion
X-ray diffraction analysis
As shown in Figure 2(a), characteristic diffraction peaks appear at 30.0, 35.3, 43.0, 53.5, 56.9 and 62.8, corresponding to the (220), (311), (400), (422), (511) and (440) crystal planes (JCPDS No. 26 -1136), which are the characteristic diffraction peaks of Fe3O4. Comparing Figure 2(a) and (b), it is not difficult to see that there is no obvious change between Fe3O4 and Fe3O4@SiO2. This may be because the SiO2 coating is amorphous; hence, no new diffraction peak occurs. Figure 2(c) and (d) shows that Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO have similar characteristic peaks. In addition to the established diffraction peaks of Fe3O4, new diffraction peaks appeared at 25.8, 37.8, 48.0, 53.8, 55.0, 62.1, 68.8, 70.3 and 75.0, corresponding to the (101), (004), (200), (105), (211), (213), (116), (220) and (215) crystal planes (JCPDS No. 21-1272). This shows that the introduced TiO2 is mainly in the anatase phase. As shown in Figure 2(c) and (d), characteristic diffraction peaks of rGO and Ce were not observed. This may be because the amount of Ce and GO is too small and detection is not obvious.

XRD spectrum of (a) Fe3O4, (b) Fe3O4@SiO2, (c) Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and (d) Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO.
Scanning electron microscope image analysis
The typical lamellar structure of GO can be clearly seen in Figure 3(a), and Figure 3(b) shows that the Fe3O4 particles have a tetragonal structure. The particle size is about 400 nm and the particles are evenly distributed. Figure 3(c) clearly shows that the Fe3O4 surface becomes smooth, while the edges and corners are no longer clear; at the same time the particle size has increased, indicating that SiO2 has successfully coated the surface of Fe3O4. Figure 3(d) shows that on addition of Ce, the surface becomes rough and granular. The EDS spectrum shows that the Ce content is 3%, indicating that Ce metal has been successfully doped on the surface of the TiO2. Figure 3(e) shows that Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce has been successfully loaded onto rGO.

SEM images of (a) rGO, (b) Fe3O4, (c) Fe3O4@SiO2, (d) Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce, (e) Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO and (f) the energy-dispersive spectrometer of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce.
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis
In order to determine the chemical composition, the sample was analysed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It can be clearly seen from Figure 4 that the sample is composed of Fe, Si, Ti, Ce, C and O. This proves that Ce has been successfully doped on the photocatalyst. Compared with the Ti2p peak, the Fe2p peak is very weak, indicating that the Fe3O4 core is almost completely covered by SiO2, forming a core-shell structure. The Ce3d spectrum is shown in Figure 4(b) and (c). The V′, V″ and V′″ peaks correspond to Ce3+3d5/2 and Ce3+3d; u, u′, u″ and u′″ correspond to Ce4+3d3/2, Ce4+3d5/2, Ce4+3d3/2 and Ce4+3d3/222–26 (V and u are used to refer to the different positions of the peaks of Ce). The CeO2 peak shifts, which may be caused by the energy transfer after CeO2 and TiO2, form a heterojunction. Figure 4(f) shows the VB-XPS plots of CeO2 and TiO2. It can be estimated that the VB positions of CeO2 and TiO2 are 2.22 eV and 2.64 eV, respectively 27 (see Figure S1 in the Supplementary Material). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis was used to study the bonding interactions in the fabricated Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2–Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2–Ce/rGO photocatalyst. The wide band at 3419 cm−1 is attributed to the tensile vibration of surface water, the hydroxy (OH) group. The characteristic peak of Si-O-Si corresponds to the antisymmetric stretching vibration at 1080 cm−1, while the Fe–O characteristic peak is at 573 cm−1 (an asymmetric stretching vibration). 21 Absorptions due to Ti–O–Ti, Ti–O–Si 16 and C=C occur at 478 cm−1 (a stretching vibration), 807 cm−1 (a symmetrical stretch) and 1623 cm−1 (double bond stretching vibration). 28 The two plots do not change significantly and there is an obvious C–O–C impurity at 1226 cm−1 in Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce. On the addition of graphene, the peak due to C=C in Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO is more obvious.

(a) X-ray diffraction pattern of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO; (b–e) Ce and Ti peak patterns; and (f) the VB-XPS patterns of CeO2 and TiO2.
Transmission electron microscopy image analysis
In order to further clarify the morphology of the sample, we performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image analysis on Fe3O4, Fe3O4@SiO2, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO. Figure 5(a) shows the tetragonal configuration of Fe3O4 more clearly, while Figure 5(b) shows that a translucent region is formed on the surface of Fe3O4, indicating that Fe3O4 and SiO2 form a core-shell structure. Figure 5(c) shows that there are many obvious particles on the outer surface of the material. According to the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and EDS results, the obvious particulate matter may be Ce, which proves that it has been successfully doped on the surface of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2. Figure 5(d) shows that Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce is tightly supported on the surface of rGO, confirming the successful preparation of the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material.

TEM images of (a) Fe3O4, (b) Fe3O4@SiO2, (c) Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and (d) Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO.
UV–Vis spectroscopy analysis
It can be seen from the UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectrum of the catalyst (Figure 6) that pure TiO2 samples have strong absorption in the ultraviolet region, but there is almost no absorption in the visible light region; CeO2 also absorbs in the ultraviolet region but, again, almost no absorption occurs in the visible region. The absorption intensity of the photocatalyst doped with Ce is significantly enhanced under visible light and exhibits a red shift of the absorbing boundary. This shows that Ce doping can expand the response range of TiO2 in the visible light region. The photocatalyst loaded with rGO further improves the absorption performance of the catalyst under visible light. Figure 6(b) is the Tauc graph driven by the UV-DRS spectrum. 22 It can be estimated that the energy band gaps of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce, TiO2 and CeO2 are 2.07 eV, 2.05 eV, 3.20 eV and 2.71 eV, respectively. The band gap of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO is narrowed, which further proves that the addition of CeO2 can significantly improve the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2. The adsorption performance of the photocatalyst is characterized by an N2 physical adsorption experiment, and the corresponding N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm is shown in Figure S2 (see the Supplementary Material). It can be seen that the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO samples show the shape of a type IV isothermal curve and that they are mesoporous structures. Electron microscopy showed that the particle size was about 40 nm. This was confirmed by previous electron microscopy. 28 These studies showed that the specific surface areas of Fe3O4, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO were 3.7660, 40.6405 and 46.9017 m2 g−1, respectively. The increase in specific surface area is conducive to the adsorption of pollutants and the promotion of photocatalytic degradation of pollutants.

(a) and (b) UV–Vis DRS spectra and Tauc plots of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2–Ce/rGO, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2–Ce, CeO2 and TiO2.
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is a method used to characterize charge transfer. The smaller the curve radius, the smaller the resistance. The Nyquist curve in Figure 7 exhibits the largest radius for TiO2, the second is Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce, and the smallest is for the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material. This shows that the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material has the highest charge transfer efficiency. This is due to the large π-bond structure of the loaded graphene, which promotes photogenerated electron transfer. Graphene is also an excellent electron acceptor, thereby reducing recombination with holes. This is consistent with the UV test.

EIS of TiO2, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO.
Photoluminescence analysis
The recombination of photogenerated carriers reduces the activity of the TiO2 photocatalyst. Therefore, photoluminescence (PL) analysis is used to measure the luminescence intensity of the fluorescence generated by the recombination of photogenerated carriers. Figure 8 clearly shows that the fluorescence intensities of pure TiO2, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO gradually decrease. It also shows that doping Ce and loading rGO reduces the recombination efficiency of photogenerated carriers. This is consistent with the EIS results. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity is improved.

PL spectra of the nano-photocatalyst samples.
Photocatalytic activity and magnetic test
As shown in Figure 9(a), the photocatalytic activity of the sample was studied via the photodegradation rate of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. The absorbance of MB after degradation was measured with an UV–Vis near-infrared spectrophotometer. The degradation efficiency of the photocatalyst increases with time. The photocatalytic activity of Fe3O4@SiO2 is 0, while the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 is very low, and the degradation rate is 8.7%. The photocatalytic activity of the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce composite material obtained after metal Ce doping improves greatly and the degradation rate is 75.4%. That of the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material is 98.2%. This shows that the supported graphene plays a significant role in improving the photocatalytic activity of the photocatalyst. This is because the excitation TiO2 conduction band electrons can be transferred to the graphene sheet which prevents photogenerated electrons from recombining with holes. This is consistent with the PL test results. The UV–Vis DRS also proved that the band gap width of the modified TiO2 photocatalyst was reduced and the visible light absorption region was greatly improved. The EIS test results are consistent with the UV–Vis DRS and PL tests. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity is improved. As shown Figure 9(b), the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material can be easily aggregated by magnetic substances. The figure shows the magnetic hysteresis loop of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO, indicating that it is magnetic. The saturation magnetization of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO is 8.37 emu g−1 and so achieved the purpose of convenient recycling. The degradation efficiency of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO remained about 90% after recycling six times.

(a) Catalytic activity of Fe3O4@SiO2, TiO2, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO; (b) the magnetic test of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO and (c) the degradation of the photocatalyst over six cycles.
Comparison of the degradation performances
Table 1 shows a comparison of the degradation efficiency of the photocatalytic materials and other similar materials in this experiment (the degradation rates are those under the optimal degradation conditions). The samples prepared in this experiment have high degradation efficiency over relatively short times.
Comparison of the photocatalytic degradation rates of similar materials.
Mechanistic analysis
According to the above analysis, the catalytic degradation principle of the Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2@Ce/rGO nanocomposite can be deduced (Figure 10). Under visible light irradiation, the electrons on the valence band of TiO2 and CeO2 are excited by the light and transition to the conduction band. Due to the band structure of the two materials, the photogenerated electrons excited to the conduction band of TiO2 recombine with the photogenerated holes on CeO2, and as a result, a large number of holes are generated in the TiO2 valence band, along with a large number of electrons in the CeO2 conduction band; the two materials form a Z-type heterostructure.

Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO the principle.
Conclusion
In this experiment, a Z-scheme heterojunction magnetic composite material, Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO, was prepared by the sol–gel and hydrothermal methods. The morphology and structure are characterized by TEM, SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR, and performance tests via UV–Vis DRS, PL, N2 gas adsorption, EIS and so on. All proved that the prepared Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO composite material has high catalytic activity. SiO2 plays a protective role, isolates Fe3O4 and TiO2, and prevents the performance of TiO2 from being diminished. The cerium and Ti metals undergo charge transfer and form a Z-type heterojunction structure. The supported reduced graphene oxide increases the specific surface area of the composite material and enhances the electrical conductivity. The prepared high-efficiency magnetic recyclable composite material has broad application prospects in the treatment of factory wastewater.
Experimental
Materials and equipment
Fe3O4 was obtained from Luoyang Haorun Information Technology Co. Ltd. Graphene Oxide was purchased from Shenzhen Tuling Evolution Technology Ce. Ltd. Ethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT), MB, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), HNO3, glacial acetic acid, Ce(NO3)3·6H2O and C2H5OH were obtained from Tianjin Komiou Chemical Reagent Ce, Ltd. All chemical reagents are of analytical grade and were used without further purification.
A D8 Advance X-ray diffractometer (Bruker-AXE, Germany), S-3400 scanning electron microscope (Hitachi, Japan), Lambda750 UV–Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (PE, USA), a CEL-LAB500 series of multi-position photochemical reactions instrument (photolysis instrument) (Beijing Zhongjiao Jinyuan Technology Co., Ltd.), a UV-5100B UV–Vis spectrophotometer (Shanghai Analytical Instrument Co., Ltd.) and an FLS920 transient steady-state fluorescence spectrophotometer (Edinburgh, UK) were employed.
Synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles
Fe3O4 (0.3 g) was weighed in a 100 mL beaker and diluted HCl (50 mL, 0.1 mol L−1) was added. The mixture was subjected to sonication for 15 min. Next, the Fe3O4 solid was magnetically separated and washed three times with deionized water. The magnetically separated Fe3O4 solid was placed in a 250 mL three-necked flask, and deionized water (18 mL) and absolute ethanol (80 mL) were added. Then, after stirring for 30 min at room temperature, NH3H2O was added. After stirring for 30 min, TEOS was added slowly (0.6 mL) and the stirring was continued for 12 h. The product, Fe3O4@SiO2, was separated magnetically and was washed and dried. The product was then dried at 60 °C for 12 h.
Synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce nanoparticles
Ce(NO3)3 is calcined at high temperature to generate CeO2. CeO2(NO3)2 (0.1 g) was weighed in a 100 mL beaker and H2O (1.8 mL), HNO3 (0.2 mL) and absolute ethanol (20 mL) were added to make solution A. Fe3O4@SiO2 (0.2 g) was weighed in a 100 mL beaker and absolute ethanol (20 mL) and acetic acid (0.25 mL) were added. The mixture was subjected to sonication for 40 min, tetrabutyl titanate (5 mL) was added, and the mixture was then mechanically stirred in a 35 °C water bath for 30 min to prepare liquid B. Solution A was slowly added to liquid B through a peristaltic pump, the mixture was stirred evenly until a sol was formed, and aged at 30 °C for 18 h. The obtained gel was dried in an oven at 80 °C for 24 h, and the dried gel was ground and calcined under a nitrogen atmosphere at 450 °C for 2 h to obtain Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2@Ce powder.
Synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO nanoparticles
Graphene oxide (0.08 g) was weighed in a 100 mL beaker and absolute ethanol (40 mL) and deionized water (20 mL) were added successively. The mixture was subjected to sonication for 1 h, and SDBS (0.15 g) and Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2@Ce (0.2 g) powder were added 10 min later followed by further sonication for 1 h. The reaction solution was transferred to a 100 mL high-pressure reactor and placed in a 120 °C oven to continue the reaction for 3 h. After the high-pressure reactor had cooled, the product was magnetically separated, and washed three times with absolute ethanol and deionized water. The product was dried at 60 °C for 24 h (Oxidation of graphene to graphene oxide).
Performance test on Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2-Ce/rGO
Using visible light as the light source, the photocatalytic performance of the photocatalyst was evaluated by assessing the photodegradation rate of MB. The magnetic photocatalyst (0.1 g) was dispersed in a MB solution (50 mL, 10 mg L−1), and testing was performed in a multi-position photochemical reactor (the light source was a 300 W xenon lamp). The suspension was stirred for 20 min in the light before changing to dark to establish the MB adsorption equilibrium. A 5 mL aliquot of the supernatant was removed after exposure to light every 10 min and analysed with detection with a spectrophotometer after centrifugation. The degradation rate was used to measure the degree of degradation of MB.
Supplemental Material
sj-docx-1-chl-10.1177_17475198211072812 – Supplemental material for A study on the preparation and performance of a graphene-supported, Ce ion-doped, high-efficiency, magnetic TiO2 photocatalyst
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-chl-10.1177_17475198211072812 for A study on the preparation and performance of a graphene-supported, Ce ion-doped, high-efficiency, magnetic TiO2 photocatalyst by Weiyan Cao, Xijun Liu, Yuwei Wang, Yong Zhang and Congzhi Fu in Journal of Chemical Research
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Qiqihaer University for analysis and the testing centre for assistance with the measurements.
Author contributions
L.X. and Y.W. guided the experiments, the test processes and revised the paper. W.C. designed and conducted the experiments and wrote the manuscript. Y.Z. performed the testing. C.F. analysed the data. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Supplemental material
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
References
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