Dyes Degradation Using Cooper-Nickel Ferrite and Its Tunable Structural and Photocatalytic Properties

Abstract

Water pollution is a serious worldwide problem. Among its pollutants, dyes that are overused by various types of industries and are resistant to conventional effluent treatments stand out. In this study, mixed copper and nickel ferrites NixCu(1-x)Fe2O4 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 e 1.0), were produced by the EDTA-Citrate complexation method, characterized and applied in photocatalysis with methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) dyes, varying the reaction pH between 2, 6 and 10. The ferrites with the highest percentages of copper had a tetragonal structure, while those with the highest percentages of nickel had a cubic structure, all with inverse spinel and all presenting bandgap values lower than 2 eV. Samples with higher percentages of copper (x = 0 and 0.2) at pH 10 showed degradation of approximately 55% for RhB and 40% for MB. A mixture of MB and RhB was also evaluated, showing a greater removal of methylene blue due to its preferential adsorption on the surface of the material. In this way, mixed copper and nickel ferrites proved promising as catalysts in photocatalytic processes.