Abstract

Rahmayeni*, Zulhadjri, Novesar Jamarun, Emriadi and Syukri Arief

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/ojc/320315

ZnO-NiFe₂O₄ magnetic nanocomposite photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by simple solvothermal method using nitric salts as starting materials and ethanol as solvent. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, FESEM-EDX, TEM, DRS-UV-vis, VSM, and FTIR instruments. Photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by dye degradation under solar light irradiation. The results show that the diffraction peaks of nanocomposites correspond to the hexagonal wurzite of ZnO and spinal cubic structure of NiFe₂O₄.  The microstructure studies revealed that nanocomposites were dominated by granular-like of ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized at 180^°C and rod-like at 200^°C. The estimated band gap value of ZnO-NiFe₂O₄ (1:0.01) nanocomposites is 2.78 eV which is lower than ZnO. The magnetic saturation (Ms) result showed a super paramagnetic behavior for nanocomposites. It was found that the photocatalytic activity of synthesized nanocomposites were higher than ZnO and NiFe₂O₄.

ZnO-NiFe2O4 nanocomposites; solvothermal; superparamagnetic; photocatalysts; solar light

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