Visible light assisted photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye using Ni doped Co-Zn nanoferrites

Nickel substituted cobalt-zinc ferrite nanoparticles with composition Co0.5Zn0.5NixFe2-xO4 (x = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0) were synthesized using a wet chemical method named citrate precursor method. Various characterizations of the prepared nanoferrites were done using X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform spectroscopy technique (FT-IR). XRD confirmed the formation of cubic spinel structure of the samples with single phase having one characteristic peak at (311). The value of optical band gap (E-g) was found to decrease with Ni substitution and have values in the range 2.30eV to 1.69eV. A Fenton-type system was created by photocatalytic activity using source of visible light for removal of methylene blue dye. Observations revealed increase in the degradation of methylene blue dye with increasing nickel content in the samples. The degradation percentage was increased from 77.32% for x = 0.25 to 90.16% for x = 1.0 in one hour under the irradiation of visible light. Also, the degradation process was found to have pseudo first order kinetics model. Hence, it can be observed that synthesized nickel doped cobalt-zinc ferrites have good capability for water purification and its degradation efficiency enhanced with increase in nickel concentration.