Photocatalytic activity evaluation of tetragonal CuFe2O4 nanoparticles for the H2 evolution under visible light irradiation

Copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized via a citric acid-assisted sol-gel method. For comparison, CuFe2O4 materials were also fabricated by solid-state reaction and co-precipitation method. Techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (UV-vis DRS) have been employed to characterize the as-synthesized CuFe2O4 products. The CuFe2O4 sample prepared by sol-gel approach is composed of almost uniform nanoparticles with a grain size of about 80 nm and crystallized in a tetragonal crystal phase structure. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of the as-obtained CuFe2O4 has been evaluated based on the H-2 evolution from aqueous oxalic acid solution under visible light irradiation. The effects of preparation routes, photocatalyst mass concentration, initial sacrificial reagent concentration and the durability of the as-obtained CuFe2O4 have been investigated in detail. The best result of the photocatalytic H2 evolution activity (1.72 mmol h(-1) g(cat)(-1)) was obtained over the sol-gel synthesized CuFe2O4 nanoparticles when the photocatalyst concentration is 1.0 gl(-1) and the oxalic acid concentration is 0.05 M. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.