CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite: Preparation, characterisation, and application in sonocatalytic degradation of organic dye pollutants

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• 作者：Saeed Farhadi ; ^{sfarhadi1348@yahoo.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Firouzeh Siadatnasab
• 关键词：CoFe2O4/CdS nanocomposite ; Cadmium dithiocarbamate ; Hydrothermal decomposition ; Sonocatalyst ; Dye degradation
• 刊名：Chinese Journal of Catalysis
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：37
• 期：9
• 页码：1487-1495
• 全文大小：1858 K

文摘

A magnetic CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite was prepared via one-step hydrothermal decomposition of cadmium diethanoldithiocarbamate complex on the surface of CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles at a low temperature of 200 °C. The nanocomposite was characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N₂ gas sorption analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and vibrating sample magnetometry. The FT-IR, XRD, EDX and XPS results confirmed the formation of the CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite. Based on the TEM analysis, the CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite constituted nearly uniform, sphere-like nanoparticles of ∼20 nm in size. The optical absorption spectrum of the CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite displayed a band gap of 2.21 eV, which made it a suitable candidate for application in sono/photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. Accordingly, the sonocatalytic activity of the CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite was evaluated towards the H₂O₂-assisted degradation of methylene blue, rhodamine B, and methyl orange under ultrasonic irradiation. The nanocomposite displayed excellent sonocatalytic activity towards the degradation of all dyes examined—the dyes were completely decomposed within 5–9 min. Furthermore, a comparison study revealed that the CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite is a more efficient sonocatalyst than pure CdS; thus, adopting the nanocomposite approach is an excellent means to improve the sonoactivity of CdS. Moreover, the magnetic properties displayed by the CoFe₂O₄/CdS nanocomposite allow easy retrieval of the catalyst from the reaction mixture for subsequent uses.