Synthesis, characterization, and application of ZnFe2O4@ZnO nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B under visible-light illumination

Abstract

The synthetic textile effluents often contain a large amount of pretreated dyes, which possibly offers the high degree of toxicity, causing many negative influences on the human health and environment. In this work, we reported the fabrication of ZnFe2O4@ZnO nanocomposite by the facile solution combustion and investigated their potential for the photocatalytic removal of Rhodamine B under the visible light LED lamps. The materials were characterized by XRD, DRS, EDX, TEM, and N2 adsorption desorption isotherm measurements. The results exhibited the highest Rhodamine B degradation efficiency of 91.87% using ZnFe2O4-50%@ZnO at the concentration of 5.0 mg L−1 and catalyst dosage of 0.75 g L−1. Possible photocatalytic mechanisms were proposed with the main role of reactive oxygen species (⋅O2–, ⋅OH) over the electron excitation using the visible light source. The ZnFe 2O4-50%@ZnO catalyst could reuse at least four cycles. Through a comparative study, ZnFe 2O4-50%@ZnO exhibited the better photocatalytic performance than other nanocomposites. It may be, therefore, expected as a promising photocatalyst for the treatment of organic dyes.