Tuning the morphological, optical, electrical, and structural properties of NiFe2O4@CdO nanocomposites and their photocatalytic application

In this study, NiFe2O4, CdO, and NiFe2O4@CdO nanocomposites were synthesized using a chemical co -precipitation process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) analysis showed the crystallinity of NiFe2O4 and CdO. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicate the formation of NiFe2O4 and CdO. In UV-Vis analysis, the optical band gap of nanocomposites was increased compared to the pristine NiFe2O4. The chemical state was elucidated from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The electrical properties of NiFe2O4 were enhanced in nanocomposites. For nickel ferrite, it is 0.8 x 10-5 S cm-1 and increased up to 2 x 10-3 S cm-1 for 0.5NiFe2O4@0.5CdO. Experimental, find that the degradation of methylene blue (MB) has an influential effect by CdO amount under UV-Visible light. NiFe2O4@CdO nanocomposites revealed improved photocatalytic performance, compared to the pristine NiFe2O4. Improved photocatalytic performance may be attributed to the availability of active sites and retard electron-hole recombination for degradation. NiFe2O4@CdO nanocomposites can be retrieved from the solution via the strong magnet.