Photocatalytic Studies of Composite Ferrite Nanoparticles

Аннотация

Composite ferrite nanoparticles Co_1 – xZn_xFe₂O₄/Ni_1 – xZn_xFe₂O₄, x = 0.1–0.5) have been synthesized by co-precipitation method and annealed at temperature of 800°C for 2 h in air. The synthesized samples have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, FE-SEM/EDS, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The prepared nanoparticles exhibit a cubic crystal structure observed from X-ray powder diffraction experiment. It has been observed that the Co_0.7Zn_0.3Fe₂O₄/Ni_0.7Zn_0.3Fe₂O₄ nanoparticles exhibit higher optical absorbance spectrum at 400 to 800 nm wavelength due to its smaller crystal size (100.8 nm) as compared to the composite ferrite nanoparticles Co_0.9Zn_0.1Fe₂O₄/Ni_0.9Zn_0.1Fe₂O₄ (176.2 nm), Co_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄/Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄ (134.3 nm), Co_0.6Zn_0.4Fe₂O₄/Ni_0.6Zn_0.4Fe₂O₄ (165.6 nm), and Co_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄/Ni_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄ (245.6 nm) nanoparticles. The photocatalytic activity of composite ferrite nanoparticles have been studied by performing the decomposition of methylene blue dye solution under UV light irradiation within 0 to 4 h. The methylene blue dye solution was considerably photodegraded by Co_0.7Zn_0.3Fe₂O₄/Ni_0.7Zn_0.3Fe₂O₄ photocatalyst under UV irradiation within 0–4 h to the efficiency of 96%. The pseudo first order rate constant of the degradation has been found to be 0.0144 S^–1. The degradation mechanisms are discussed.