Electrospun Zn Doped CuFe2O4 Nanofibers with Enhanced Photo Fenton-Like Catalytic Activity

Abstract

One dimensional Zn doped CuFe2O4 spinel ferrite nanofibers were successfully prepared via a facile electrospinning method followed by two different calcination routes. The results showed that the as-prepared nanofibers through two-step calcination exhibited more uniform size distribution in diameter compared with those calcined by one-step method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that with the increase of Zn content the position of diffraction peaks of Zn doped CuFe2O4 slightly shift towards lower 2θ angle because the ionic sizes of the Zn2+ (0.74 Å) is larger than that of Cu2+ (0.69 Å). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that with increasing Zn content the position of vibrational band (590 cm−1) shifted towards the smaller wavenumber. Generally, photo-generated carriers increased with the increasing of Zn content. The photo Fenton-like catalytic results revealed that the doping of Zn facilitated the enhancement of degradation efficiency of catalysts. Additionally, 10 at.% Zn doped CuFe2O4 exhibited the best photo Fenton-like catalytic activity and the degradation efficiency of Rhodamine B (RhB) could reach 100% in 40 min. Finally, the enhancement of photo Fenton-like catalytic mechanism of the Zn doped CuFe2O4 nanofibers was mainly attributed to actived spinel structure lattice by Zn doping, which allows more Cu2+ and Fe3+ ions are involved in the photo Fenton-like catalytic reaction.