Zirconium Doped Copper Ferrite (CuFe2O4) Nanoparticles for the Enhancement of Visible Light-Responsive Photocatalytic Degradation of Rose Bengal and Indigo Carmine Dyes

In this work, the Zr doped CuFe2O4 nanoparticles were prepared with different concentrations of zirconium ions through the chemical precipitation method. The Zr ion are added as Zr-(x wt%):CuFe2(100-xwt%)O4 with (x = 0, 1, 3, 5). The crystal structure and phase were identified by XRD characterization. From the XRD the average crystallite sizes of the synthesized material were calculated and are obtained as 33 nm, 34 nm, 38 nm, and 42 nm. FT-IR characterization was taken to find the functional groups present in the material. The optical properties and corresponding optical band gap were determined by UV-DRS and PL studies. The bandgap was found to be 1.39 eV, 1.56 eV, 1.80 eV, and 1.97 eV for 0%, 1%, 3%, and 5% Zr doped CuFe2O4 nanoparticles respectively. The surface morphology is studied by SEM analysis. EDAX is used for the elemental composition analysis of the prepared materials. Further, the photocatalytic performances were studied with Rose Bengal (RB) and Indigo Carmine (IC) textile dyes. The maximum degradation percentage was obtained as 88% for RB dye and 71% for IC dye with 5wt% Zr doped CuFe2O4 nanoparticles within 120 min. The mineralization of the degraded dye solution was confirmed by the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) technique.