Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of highly efficient NiFe₂O₄/r-GO based photocatalyst

This work has demonstrated the photocatalytic activity of NiFe2O4/r-GO based photocatalyst. The efficient and low-cost synthetic method has been used for the synthesis of NiFe2O4/r-GO. The NiFe2O4/r-GO was characterized using different analytical methods such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction method, Scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy methods. The maximum Rhodamine degradation was found to be 96.8 (+/- 1.3) % within 140 min. The maximum dye degradation capacity of NiFe2O4/r-GO is 16.8 (+/- 0.4) mg/g and the pseudo second order rate constant was observed to be 5.9 (+/- 1.1) g/mg/min. Freundlich isotherm model was found more favorable than Langmuir model for the degradation of RhB. The NiFe2O4/r-GO was re-utilized five times. In each step, a remarkable percentage of dye degradation was found. After fifth cycle, the dye degradation was found to be 42.2 (+/- 1.1) %. Further, on the basis of experimental findings, NiFe2O4/r-GO was found to be a good photocatalyst and can be applied in the treatment of wastewater containing organic pollutants under large-scale operation.