Enhanced sunlight driven photocatalytic activity and electrochemical sensing properties of Ce-doped MnFe2O4 nano magnetic ferrites

This research deals with the facile combustion synthesis of manganese ferrite (MFO) nanoparticle with different cerium concentration and their potential application as an efficient photocatalyst and chemical sensor. The concentration of introduced cerium affects the size, structure, compositional, morphological, optical, photoluminescence and magnetic properties of the ferrite nanoparticle. The X-ray diffraction pattern affirmed the arrangement of cubic spinel structure with the formation of secondary phase CeO2 as the cerium concentration exceed 3 mol%. SEM micrographs revealed irregular morphology with more number of pores and voids. HRTEM along with SAED pattern revealed the crystalline cubic nature. The optical band gap deduced from UV-Vis-DRS spectra was observed to be in the range 2.3-2.8 eV. PL studies indicated a significant minimization in combination of electrons & holes in MnFe2O4 on addition of Ce dopant. VSM investigation demonstrated the soft magnetic nature of the prepared sample with moderate magnetization value. An excellent photocatalytic performance of Cerium doped MFO (3 mol%) towards MB and AR dye degradation was found to be 1.5 and 1.67 times more compared to host matrix under Sunlight irradiation that correlated to reduced band gap, Ce dopant and efficient separation of charge carriers. Cerium doped MFO (3 mol%) have high specific capacitance value of 471.7 and 1546.8 Fg(-1) for NaNO3 and HCl electrolytes respectively, indicating the pseudo capacitance nature due to which it can be used as a supercapacitor. The synthesized nanoparticles can sense D-Glucose and Paracetamol even at a lower concentration varying from 1 to 10 mM. The synthesized Ce-doped MnFe2O4 nanomaterials have great potential to be used in the future production of promising active photocatalysts and sensitive chemical sensors for the identification and degradation of toxic industrial dyes for improved safety in the fields of environment and health care.