NiCrFeO4 nanostructures: Sonochemical synthesis, characterization and promising photocatalytic application for removal of toxic coloring agents under visible light

Abstract

• Investigation the impact of sonication parameters on the -morphological properties of NiCrFeO 4 (NCF). • Sono-reaction of NCF delivered spinel-type cubic NCF phase with space group of Fd-3 m. • Attaining maximum visible light-driven photocatalytic performance (97.50 %) against 10 ppm EY dye. • •OH radicals significantly contributed to the breakdown of EY. Although new semiconductor materials have been developed to eliminate various contaminants, producing effective multi-component nano-compounds with high-intensity visible light activation remains a challenge. This paper aims to carefully create cubic NiCrFeO 4 (NCF) nanoparticles using sonochemical route and to use them as effective light-activated nano-photocatalyst for wastewater treatment. Several spectroscopy techniques were subjected to validate how different factors, such as types of surfactants, sonication time, and sonication power levels affect the structure, purity, and morphology of the as-prepared NCF samples. Microscopy images presented spherical NCF nanoparticles are formed when PVA was used as structure-directing agent, 5 % was sonication power and 8 min was selected for reaction time. Cubic phase with space group of Fd-3 m were identified by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns submitted to a Rietveld refinement method for resulting NCF samples. The optical findings indicated that the NCF nanostructures effectively decompose pollutants under visible light exposure due to their band gap of 1.75 eV. Tuning the photocatalytic conditions (50 mg of catalyst and 10 ppm of pollutant concentration) exhibited that best-performing sample have ability to degrade about 97.50 % of erythrosine (EY) in 120 min when exposed to visible light. The findings suggest that sonochemically synthesized NCF nanostructures are a good choice for photocatalysis fields.

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