A Facile Synthesis of MgFe2O4/ZnS Heterojunction with Effectively Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity for Degradation of Methylene Blue and Crystal Violet Dyes

• Published in: Journal of cluster science Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 991 - 999
• Main Authors: Elangovan, R., Vijayan, V., Bakthavatsalam, S., Ramkumar, K., Sathish, T., Sudhakar, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Dyes; Ethanol; Fourier transforms; Heterojunctions; Inorganic Chemistry; Light; Light irradiation; Magnesium ferrites; Methylene blue; Nanochemistry; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; Nitrates; Original Paper; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Physical Chemistry; Spectrum analysis; Synthesis; System effectiveness; Water purification; Zinc sulfide; ZnS nanocatalyts; Photocatalytic degradation; Heterojunctions; Two-step synthesis approach; Water purification; MgFe; O
• ISSN: 1040-7278; 1572-8862
• DOI: 10.1007/s10876-022-02271-0

A novel n-MgFe 2 O 4 –n-ZnS heterojunction catalyst was employed via two step approach for photodegradation of organic dyes such as Methylene Blue (MB) and Crystal Violet (CV) dyes under visible light irradiation. The synthesized MgFe 2 O 4 /ZnS NCs were characterized using PXRD, FTIR, UV–Visible spectroscopy, PL and FESEM analysis which reveals the formation of flake like structure with size as to be ~ 50 nm. The photocatalytic experimental result demonstrates that the MgFe 2 O 4 /ZnS nanocomposites (NCs) improve photodegradation performance with 98.0% and 91% decomposition of MB and CV dyes within 120 min illumination during simulated visible light irradiation. From the result, MgFe 2 O 4 /ZnS NCs has higher photocatalytic performance than that of MgFe 2 O 4 , and ZnS due to efficient separation of the photo-induced electron–hole pairs and effective electron–hole generation transfer by the formation of n-MgFe 2 O 4 –n-ZnS heterojunction. Hence, photodegradation performance implies that the synthesized MgFe 2 O 4 /ZnS NCs can be effectively utilized in waste water purification systems.