Peony-like magnetic graphene oxide/Fe3O4/BiOI nanoflower as a novel photocatalyst for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B and Methylene blue dyes

Novel peony-like magnetic graphene oxide (GO)/Fe3O4/BiOI nanocomposites were successfully synthesized through a facile method and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, UV–Vis DRS, BET, FT-IR, and Raman spectra, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation potentiality of GO/Fe3O4/BiOI nanoflowers towards organic dyes Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methylene blue (MB) was demonstrated under the visible-light illumination. Among these samples, GOFB-4 (nFe:nBi = 4:1) possessed the best photocatalytic activity, it could decompose nearly 99.2% of RhB within 80 min and 91.4% of MB within 170 min. Holes and hydroxyl radicals were the two mainly reactive species of GO/Fe3O4/BiOI to degrade RhB and MB under the visible-light irradiation. Furthermore, the photodegradation activity of GOFB-4 nanocomposites against RhB and MB exhibited little loss after five recycles, indicating the essential stability of the photocatalyst.