Enhancing photocatalytic performance of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and Fe3O4@ZnO nanocomposites

• Main Authors: Anjali, Anjali, Gupta, Aarti, Tripathi, Babita, Sahni, Mohit, Sharma, Kuldeep, Ranjan, Nishant, Yahya, M.Z.A., Pandit, Soumya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2024
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/113275/1/113275.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/113275/; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11581-024-05843-4

In this work, Fe3O4 nanoparticles and Fe3O4@ZnO nanocomposites were prepared by co-precipitation and reflux techniques, respectively. Structural, magnetic, and photocatalytic properties were studied. The crystalline structure and morphology were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analyses. Fe3O4 had a cubic spinel structure with a crystal size of 37.5 nm. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed the characteristic peaks corresponding to Fe–O, ZnO, and surface hydroxyl group, confirming that Fe3O4 and ZnO exist in nanocomposites. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed Fe, Zn, and O elements as its surface composition. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) confirmed that the magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles exhibited superparamagnetism with saturation magnetization of 72 emu/g, whereas it was relatively lower (1.4 emu/g) for Fe3O4@ZnO due to the coating of ZnO. The nanocomposites showed the best photocatalytic activity, degrading 77% methylene blue dye in 20 min under natural sunlight, compared with 15% for Fe3O4 alone. These findings suggest that the Fe3O4@ZnO nanocomposite is a promising candidate for environmental applications, particularly in wastewater treatment.