A Novel One-Pot Combustion Synthesis and Opto-magnetic Properties of Magnetically Separable Spinel Mn x Mg 1 − x Fe2 O 4(0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) Nanophotocatalysts

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Magnetically separable spinel MnxMg1−xFe2O4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) nano-photocatalysts was synthesized by a facile microwave-assisted combustion method. The formation of single-phase cubic spinel structure was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses. The morphology of the samples consists of sphere-like nanoparticles (NPs) structure, which was confirmed by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) analyses. The energy band gap of the samples was confirmed by UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS) study and the band gap of pure MgFe2O4 sample is 2.02 eV, and it is increased with increasing the amount of Mn2+ dopant, due to the decrease of particle size. The magnetic measurements (VSM) showed ferromagnetic behavior for all compositions. The present study leads to enhance the photocatalytic activity of spinel MnxMg1−xFe2O4 NPs with the addition of TiO2 catalyst using the photo-decomposition of 4-chloro phenol (4-CP) under visible light. It was found that the combined nanocomposite (NCs) MnxMg1−xFe2O4-TiO2photocatalysts exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity than that of pure TiO2 or MnxMg1−xFe2O4. The enhanced photocatalytic ability of MnxMg1−xFe2O4-TiO2 NCs could be attributed to the interconnected heterojunction of spinel MnxMg1−xFe2O4 and TiO2 catalysts.