Abstract
Sol–gel autocombustion technique was employed to synthesize ZnFe2−x La x O4 (0 < x < 0.2) nanoparticles. Cation distribution among the tetrahedral and octahedral sites and optical properties is highly dependent on La substitution in the spinel structure which was examined by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The ZnFe2−x La x O4 nanoparticles exhibited strong absorption in the visible region with the optical band gap calculated from Tauc’s plot in the range of 1.93–1.98 eV. Furthermore, the effects of La substitution on the photodegradation of the methyl orange (MO) under visible light were also studied. The degradation of MO dye was enhanced with increasing La3+ substitution from x = 0 to x = 0.2, which may be due to the higher redox potential of La3+ ion as compared to those of iron. Moreover, the magnetic measurements showed that the magnetization decreased from 7.06 to 2.35 emu/g with La additions, due to the reduction in the total magnetic moments.
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