Robust visible light active CoNiO2–BiFeO3–NiS ternary nanocomposite for photo-fenton degradation of rhodamine B and methyl orange: Kinetics, degradation pathway and toxicity assessment

Abstract

Sustainable wastewater treatment is crucial to remediate the water pollutants through the development of highly efficient, low-cost and separation free photocatalyst. The aim of this study is to construct a novel CoNiO2–BiFeO3–NiS ternary nanocomposite (NCs) for the efficient degradation of organic pollutants by utilising visible light. The NCs was characterized by various physiochemical techniques, including HR-TEM, SEM, XPS, FT-IR, ESR, EIS, PL, UV–visible DRS, and N2 adsorption and desorption analysis. The photocatalyst exhibits extraordinary degradation efficiency towards MO (99.8%) and RhB (97.8%). The intermediates were determined using GC-MS analysis and the degradation pathway was elucidated. The complete mineralization was further confirmed by TOC analysis. The CoNiO2–BiFeO3–NiS ternary NCs have shown excellent photostability, structural stability and reusability even after six cycles and it is confirmed by XRD and XPS analysis. The kinetic study reveals that the photodegradation of the dyes follows first order reaction. The influence of different pH, dye concentrations and NCs dosages were investigated. The intermediate toxicity was predicted by computational stimulation using ECOSAR software. The NCs shows promising potential for ecological safety which demonstrates its practical application in the treatment of waste water pollutants in large scale.