Hydrothermal synthesis of nitrogen doped graphene supported cobalt ferrite (NG@CoFe2O4) as photocatalyst for the methylene blue dye degradation

Abstract

A magnetic NG@CoFe2O4 photocatalyst was developed via a facile hydrothermal method and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) techniques. The CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were found to have a size between 100-150 nm and were uniformly dispersed on the nitrogen doped graphene. Magnetic studies showed that the NG@CoFe2O4 photocatalyst can be easily separated from the solution by the simple bar magnet. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye (MB) was studied under visible irradiation. The photocatalytic performance of NG@CoFe2O4 photocatalyst was found to be influenced by structural and optical properties as well as the surface area of the samples. The NG@CoFe2O4 photocatalyst exhibited improved photodegradation performance when compared with pure CoFe2O4. The as synthesized NG@CoFe2O4 can be a probable candidate used as a visible-light active magnetically separable photocatalyst and so could be used as a potent separation tool in waste water treatment.