Ultrasound-Assisted Photocatalytic Degradation of Azo Dyes under Visible Light Irradiation Using Polythiophene-Decorated CoFe2O4 Nanohybrids

Abstract

The present work reports the synthesis of cobalt ferrite and its nanohybrids with polythiophene (PTh) in the weight ratios of 10% and 20%. The ferrite and its nanohybrids were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with elemental mapping (Fe-SEM) to confirm the morphology as well as the structure of the synthesized nanohybrids. The nanohybrids were tested for their photocatalytic activity upon modification of PTh against Alizarin Yellow (AY), Congo Red (CR) and Brilliant Blue (BB). Almost 100% degradation was achieved in 30 min using 50 mg of the photocatalyst. The effect of catalyst concentration and dye concentration was also investigated to explore optimum concentration of the photocatalyst required for rapid degradation of the dye. The generation of radicals responsible for degradation was analyzed by radical scavenging experiments and a probable mechanism of degradation was proposed.