Abstract:
Due to increasing environmental pollution, it is need of the time to develop some eco-friendly
technologies that can overcome the major issue. Nanotechnology and photocatalysis provides the
best way to solve the issues of environment. In the present work, we have reported the synthesis
of nanoparticles of cobalt ferrite via hydrothermal method and sheets of g-C3N4 were produced
through direct heating of melamine powder. Composites of cobalt ferrite and g-C3N4 were
synthesized by solid state method i.e. grinding using agate pestle and mortar. The composites
were synthesized in different concentrations by weight i.e. 1:3, 1:1 and 3:1 of both materials and
used for the degradation of methylene blue. The samples were characterized via x-ray diffraction
(XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy
(EDS), UV-Visible diffused reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). Using SEM,
we came to know about the morphology of samples and particle size as well. Through XRD,
phase of both materials was confirmed that their crystal system is cubic. EDS gave information
about the elemental composition of the as synthesized materials. From UV-Vis spectroscopy,
Tauc plot of the data was plotted for the determination of band gap. Photodegradation studies of
methylene blue were carried out using bare cobalt ferrite, g- C3N4 and their nanocomposites. .
The higher photocatalytic activity of CoFe2O4/g-C3N4 in 1:1 is attributed to high charge
separation and better bandgap alignment. In short, NC-2 showed the maximum degradation of
methylene blue up to 94%.
