Ultrasonic Preparation of a New Composite Poly(gma)@ru/tio2@fe3o4: Application in the Catalytic Reduction of Organic Pollutants

This work concerns the preparation of a new composite material based on poly(Glycidyl methacrylate), Ru/TiO2 and Fe3O4 using ultrasound treatment. Several composites were prepared by varying the percentage of Ru/TiO2 and Fe3O4. Then, they were applied as catalysts for the reduction of several organic pollutants. 4-Nitrophenol (4-NPh), Methylene blue (MB) and Orange G (OG) were used as a model to study the photocatalytic reduction process in the presence of NaBH4 at room temperature. The obtained photocatalysts were characterized by different methods such as XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM, EDX, TEM, STEM, TGA, ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy and Zeta potential measurements. The results showed that the use of ultrasound gave a good dispersion of all species into the polymeric matrix. These solids have shown good activity via the photocatalytic reduction of organic pollutants. The best performance was obtained for the photocatalyst having the higher content of metal NPs “CP(30)”. The rate constant Kapp of composite CP(30) towards catalytic reduction of MB, OG and 4-NPh reached a high level up to 0.55 min−1, 0.241 min−1 and 0.3 min−1, respectively. Finally, the recyclability of the photocatalyst CP(30) was also evaluated. The results showed that the performance of this photocatalyst was satisfactory during its reuse.