Graphitic Carbon Nitride Modified Cobalt Ferrite for Pollutant Degradation

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%.