Influence of Fuel on Structure, Morphology, Magnetic Properties and Photocatalytic Activity of NiFe2O4 Nanoparticles

Abstract

The present study attempted the synthesis of nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) nanoparticles via solution combustion technique with urea as the fuel. The synthesized samples was structurally characterized by a series of different techniques including TGA/DSC, X-ray powder diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray, scanning electron microscope, transmission electronic microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) was also employed to investigate the magnetic properties of nickel ferrite at room temperature. The results showed that the crystallite size of the NiFe2O4 nanoparticles declined from 45.8 to 33.7 nm in response to elevated amount of urea in the precursor. The photocatalytic activity of NiFe2O4 nanoparticles was investigated by using rhodamine B dye under visible light.