Boosting highly effective photocatalytic activity through g-C3N4 coupled Al doped zinc ferrite nanoparticles: Maximizing dye degradation kinetics

Abstract

Photocatalysts have gotten much attention because of the growing need to protect the environment, and metal-doped zinc ferrite heterojunctions are an exciting system to look into. The current study involves synthesizing aluminum-doped zinc ferrite (Al@ZF) nanoparticles (NPs) and nanocomposites of Al@ZF with S@g-C3N4 via a hydrothermal method and then evaluating their photocatalytic activity. Al@ZF NPs were prepared by varying the percentage of aluminum (0.5, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 wt %). Photocatalytic measurements were carried out employing methylene blue (MB) as the model dye. The Al@ZF NPs with 1 % concentration showed the best photocatalytic capability among all of them. Correspondingly, the S@g-C3N4/Al@ZF nanocomposites (NCs) were made by varying the percentage of S@g-C3N4 (10, 30, 50 and 70 wt %) with the 1 % Al@ZF NPs. Then, photocatalytic working measurements of the S@g-C3N4/Al@ZF NCs proved that the 50 % S@g-C3N4/Al@ZF NC showed the highest photocatalytic activity and completely degraded MB within 150 min of light irradiation. To verify the morphological structure of these artificial nanoparticles and nanocomposites, several analytical techniques including XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, FTIR, and XPS were used. The produced photocatalyst's quick degradation kinetics and simplicity in separation may provide new opportunities for the oxidation of persistent organic pollutants. To our best knowledge, no prior report has been made on the synthesized nanocomposite. The proposed modification of Al@ZF using 50 % S@g-C3N4 is effective, less expensive, non-toxic, and highly efficient for scalable wastewater treatment applications.