SYNTHESIS AND THE STUDY OF PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF COBALT FERRITE (COFE2O4) NANOPARTICLES: SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS OF PHOTOCATALYSIS AND PHOTO-FENTON PROCESS

Abstract

CoFe 2 O 4 was prepared by sol-gel combustion method. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) studies confirmed the spinel structure for CoFe 2 O 4 . UV-Vis absorbance spectrum and the following Kubelka-Munk plot show the band gap of CoFe 2 O 4 to be 2.73eV. FTIR studies shows the existence of Co-O and Fe-O stretching vibrations. Raman spectroscopy gives the information pertaining to tetrahedral and octahedral sites. The activity of the catalyst was explored for the degradation of methyl orange in presence of peroxymonosulphate (PMS) as an oxidant which is dipolar, possessing unsymmetrical structure and higher oxidation potential and shows better oxidising reactions due to charge transfer to solvent molecule (CTTS) and PMS forms a charge transfer complex with CoFe 2 O 4 . The active roles of the hydroxyl and sulphate free radicals are confirmed. CoFe 2 O 4 catalyst shows synergistic effect between photocatalysis and photo- Fenton process especially even at higher pH values and the catalyst is found to be stable and can be reused for three consecutive cycles.