Improved photocatalytic activities of CuxCo0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles through co-precipitation method in degrading methylene blue

We report the synthesis of CuxCo0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4 with x = (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) nanoparticles using the coprecipitation method in the presence of oleic acid as a surfactant and coating material. The X-ray diffraction analysis with Rietveld refinement technique confirmed the formation of cubic phase with Fd-3m space group of all the prepared nano-ferrites. The average crystallite size varies in the range of 21-38 nm with varying concentration of copper. The lattice parameter was found to decrease with increase in copper substitution. This may be attributed to larger ionic radius of cobalt as compared to that of copper. TEM and SEM analysis showed the monodispersion and cubic-like nanostructure. Two prominent stretching bands were observed in FT-IR spectra around 400-600 cm(-1). These two bands confirmed the spinel structure of the prepared nanoparticles. Raman spectroscopy is used to verify that we have synthesized ferrite spinels and determines their phonon modes. The thermal decomposition of CuxCo0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4 was investigated by TGA\DTA. The optical study UV-visible is used to calculate the optical band gap energies. The products exhibited the attractive magnetic properties with high saturation magnetization, which were examined by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). On the other part, the photocatalytic activity of our compounds was studied using methylene blue (MB) as model organic pollutants, where the results showed that an appropriate amount of copper (Cu2+) could greatly increase the amount of hydroxyl radicals generated by the ferrite nanoparticles, which were responsible for the obvious increase in the photocatalytic activity.