5418 Å). The morphologies of the samples

were observed using a field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, Hitachi, S-4800, Chiyoda-ku, Japan) and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM, Philips, Tecnai F20, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. The N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms were performed on a full-automatic physical and chemical adsorption apparatus (Micromeritics, TriStar https://www.selleckchem.com/products/pf-03084014-pf-3084014.html II 3020, Norcross, GA, USA). Results and discussion Morphologies and catalytic activities of the as-synthesized magnetite and LFP-C Magnetite nanoparticles were widely studied as a Fenton-like catalyst due to the ferrous element, and we chose magnetite nanoparticles as a reference catalyst to evaluate the catalytic activity of LFP [9, 10]. In our experiment, magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation of ferrous and ferric solutions with a molar ratio of Fe(III)/Fe(II) of 2:1 at 80°C [27]. The FESEM result indicates that the as-synthesized magnetite nanoparticles have a quite small average particle size of approximately 50 nm with a narrow size distribution (Figure 1a). In contrast, the as-received LFP-C has much bigger particle size than the as-synthesized

magnetite. The FESEM images of LFP-C shows that the commercial product of LFP-C has particle sizes from approximately 1 to approximately 4 μm with irregular morphologies (Figure 1b,c). The XRD analysis of selleck inhibitor LFP-C indicates that Phloretin the commercial LFP-C is composed of a triphylite crystal phase (JCPDS card no. 00-040-1499) (Figure 1d). Figure 1 FESEM images and XRD pattern. FESEM images of the as-synthesized magnetite nanoparticles

(a) and (b, c) the LFP-C particles. (d) XRD pattern of the LFP-C particles. In order to evaluate the potential of LFP-C as AG-881 manufacturer heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst, oxidative degradation experiments of R6G with hydrogen peroxide were performed. The degradation behaviors of R6G and magnetite catalysts were shown in Figure 2a. The concentration of the catalysts and hydrogen peroxide were 3 g/L and and 6 mL/L, respectively, and the pH of R6G solution was 7. The degradation efficiency of approximately 53.7% was achieved with magnetite nanoparticles after 1 h reaction. However, LFP exhibited the efficiency of 86.9% after 1 h, which is much higher than that of magnetite nanoparticles. This is somewhat surprising because the particle size (a few μm) of LFP is much larger than that (approximately 50 nm) of magnetite nanoparticles: larger particles lead to smaller surface area for the interfacial catalytic reaction, thereby worse catalytic activity.