Synthesis and characterization of CoFe2O4 and Ni-doped CoFe2O4 nanoparticles by chemical Co-precipitation technique for photo-degradation of organic dyestuffs under direct sunlight

Cobalt ferrite and nickel doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) was victoriously developed through chemical co-precipitation technique. The spinel crystal structure of prepared samples was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction studies (PXRD) and also the crystalline size was calculated. Optical properties of the samples were analyzed using UV-Visible spectrophotometer and Photoluminescence (PL) studies. The bandgap was calculated using Tauc's plot and is found to be 1.83 eV, 1.92 eV, 2.12 eV, and 2.21eV for pure cobalt ferrite and (3, 7, 11) wt % Ni-doped CoFe2O4 samples respectively. Further, the morphological and the compositional weight percentage (wt %) was examined using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDAX) respectively. Towards application, the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized NPs was studied under direct sunlight and the maximum efficiency was obtained as 83.41%, 63.62% and 82.76% for Methylene Blue (MB), Rhodamine B (RhB) and Crystal Violet (CV) respectively.