Abstract
Cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) is an interesting material due to its rich physical properties. In order to study the influence of synthetic methods on the crystalline and morphological structure, optical and magnetic properties of the CoFe2O4, we synthesized here the CoFe2O4 by three different methods, including the chemical co-precipitation method, sol-gel method, and ceramic method. The resulting powders were characterized by different analyses: XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, FTIR, UV-Vis, PL, XPS, and surface acidity. The characterization results showed a significant variation in the structural, particle size, surface area, and optical properties of pure cobalt ferrite with changing the synthetic method. Both XRD and FTIR analyses confirm the formation of the cubic spinel phase, where the crystallite size changes from 21 to 36 nm. XPS analyses demonstrated the effect of the synthetic method on the cation distribution at the tetrahedral and octahedral sites in the spinel ferrite lattice. The magnetic properties of the prepared samples were studied at room temperature using the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and found to be strongly dependent on the synthetic method and showed either ferromagnetic or super-paramagnetic character. The cobalt ferrite samples showed high photocatalytic activity against Basic Red 18 (BR 18) dye under visible light irradiation. The effects of particle size, surface areas, and morphology on the photocatalytic activity were discussed and the positive holes are suggested to be the major active species of the dye dissociation.
Highlights
Magnetic nanoparticles have drawn an excessive arrangement of research due to their characteristic properties and their scientific, technological uses
According to the above-mentioned optical properties, we studied the photocatalytic activity of the investigated CoFe2O4 nanoparticles under visible light irradiation using the degradation of Basic Red 18 (BR 18) aqueous solution, as a basic dye model
Nanosized cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) particles are synthesized through three different methods
Summary
Magnetic nanoparticles have drawn an excessive arrangement of research due to their characteristic properties and their scientific, technological uses. The spinel structure exhibits a general formula (A)[B2]O4 crystallizes in a face-centered cubic structure, with two lattice types for cation distributions of A and B sites in the tetrahedral and octahedral organization, respectively. The physical properties of ferrite spinel are linked to the cation distribution over the tetrahedral sites A (8a) and octahedral sites B (16d) of the structure. Cobalt ferrite exhibits a partially inverse spinel structure in which both sites (A and B) hold a fraction of Co2+ and Fe3+ cations and shows the formula of (Co2+1-d Fe3+d)A[Co2+d Fe3+2-d]BO4 where d is a fraction of tetrahedral sites occupied by Fe3+ ions, which is known as the degree of inversion. The degree of inversion is sensitive to numerous parameters such as the microstructure and synthesis process. This work is designed to prepare CoFe2O4 with three different methods (co-precipitation, ceramic, and sol-gel) and investigate how the change in each of the cation distribution, particle size, and surface area affect the optical and magnetic properties, which determine the magnetic and photocatalytic applications
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