Structural, Optical, Magnetic and Photocatalytic Properties of Zn Doped CoFe2O4 Decorated Bentonite Nanocomposites

Abstract

AbstractThe bentonite‐Zn doped CoFe2O4 photocatalysts were successfully synthesized for the first time by decorating magnetic ZnxCo1−xFe2O4 nanoparticles onto the bentonite surface in order to enhance the photocatalytic performance of Zn doped CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. We tried to thoroughly investigate how changes in Zn2+ concentration affected the particle size, shape, magnetic properties, optical band gap, and photocatalytic activities of B‐ZnxCo1−xFe2O4 nanocomposites. The photodegradation of crystal violet (CV), a model reaction under visible light irradiations, was used to assess the photocatalytic activities of the samples. Compared to other samples, the B‐ZnxCo1−xFe2O4 (x=0.5) showed the highest photocatalytic activity, which is best matched to the pseudo‐first‐order kinetic. According to investigations using reactive species capture, the superoxide radicals have the main role in the degrading process, while the hydroxyl radicals and holes have a secondary and minimal effect, respectively.