Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured ternary composites of graphene oxide/Fe3O4/NiO for waste water treatment

Abstract

Photocatalysis using solar energy and semiconductors is widely used in the purification of air and the processing of wastewater. Present study deal with cost-effective GO synthesis, supporting NiO/Fe3O4 ternary nanocomposites; for the rapid photocatalytic degradation of the Rhodamine B Dye. For this purpose, nickel oxide nanoparticles and iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal method. Synthesis of graphene oxide was done by using modified hummers method. These trimetallic nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction Crystallography (XRD) for structure, shape and composition determination. The photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B dye was conducted and various parameters like catalyst amount, dye concentration, pH and contact time optimization were performed to evaluate dye degradation efficiency of Fe3O4/NiO/Graphene trimetallic nanoparticles. Kinetic models were studied to check degradation rate and Pseudo 1st order kinetic model was most suitable to the experimental data of dye degradation.