Influence of Zn2+ in CoFe2O4 nanoparticles on its photocatalytic activity under solar light irradiation

The present work deals with the study of CoFe2O4 and three different concentrations of Zn2+ substituted CoFe2O4 nanoparticles synthesized via a simple co-precipitation method as a sunlight driven photocatalyst. Powder X-ray diffraction studies were taken to preliminary confirmation of crystal structure and crystallite size were found to be is found to be 43 nm, 41 nm, 40 nm, and 37 nm for Zn-x Co(100-x %)Fe2O4 (x = 3 wt%, 7 wt%, 11 wt%) samples respectively. optical band gap was found to be 1.85 eV, 1.99 eV, 2.08 eV and 2.28 eV Zn-x Co(100-x %)Fe2O4 (x = 3 wt%, 7 wt%, 11 wt%) samples respectively using diffused reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS). The Photoluminescence (PL) study was carried out for crystal defect analysis. Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy gives the details about the functional group present in the material. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrum (SEM & EDAX) show the surface morphology and elemental composition of the synthesized material. Rhodamine B (RhB), Methylene Blue (MB) and Crystal Violet (CV) are mineralized by photodegradation using synthesized material was studied.