Author(s)

Sankaran Murugesan, Oleksandr Kuznetsov, Zhou Zhou, Valery Khabashesku^*

Center for Technology Innovation, Baker Hughes a GE Company, Houston, USA.

Synthesis and characterization of hybrid fluorescent superparamagnetic core-shell particles of Fe@C-CN_x composition are presented for the first time. The prepared Fe@C-CN_x hybrid nanoparticles were found to possess multifunctionality by exhibiting strong superparamagnetic properties and bright fluorescence emissions at 500 nm after the excitation with light in the UV-visible range. Fe@C-CN_x also exhibits photocatalytic activities for organic dye degradation comparable to pure amorphous CN_x with reusability through magnetic separation. The combination of magnetic and fluorescent properties of core-shell Fe@C-CN_x nanoparticles opens opportunities for their application as sensors and magnet manipulated reusable photocatalysts. Superparamagnetic Fe@C core-shell nanoparticles were used as the template material in the synthesis, where the carbon shell was functionalized through one-step free-radical addition of alkyl groups terminated with carboxylic acid moieties. The method utilizes the organic acyl peroxide of dicarboxylic acid (succinic acid peroxide) as a non-oxidant functional free radical precursor for functionalization. Further, covalently functionalized succinyl-Fe@C core-shell nanoparticles were coated with the amorphous carbon nitride (CN_x) generated by an in-situ solution-based chemical reaction of cyanuric chloride with lithium nitride. A detailed physicochemical characterization of the microstructure, magnetic and fluorescence properties of the synthesized hybrid nanoparticles is provided.

Magnetic Nanoparticles, Core-Shell Nanostructures, Fe@C-CN_x, Fluorescence, Photocatalysts

Murugesan, S. , Kuznetsov, O. , Zhou, Z. and Khabashesku, V. (2019) Fluorescent Superparamagnetic Core-Shell Nanostructures: Facile Synthesis of Fe@C-CN_x Particles for Reusable Photocatalysts. Advances in Nanoparticles, 8, 1-19. doi: 10.4236/anp.2019.81001.