Synergistic potential in spinel ferrite MFeO (M = Co, Ni) nanoparticles-mediated graphene oxide: Structural aspects, photocatalytic, and kinetic studies.

The existence of artificial dyes in water is a significant environmental concern, as it can lead to poor water quality. Photodegradation is becoming an increasingly popular method for treating water contaminated with dyes. In this study, the photodegradation of Reactive Red 66 and Reactive Red 120 dyes, as well as textile wastewater, was investigated under UV and visible light irradiation. To enhance the photoresponse of the MFeO (M = Co, Ni) nanoparticles, modifications were made by incorporating graphene oxide. The MFeO nanoparticles and MFeO/GO nanocomposite photocatalysts were subjected to several characterization techniques, including FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, DRS, zeta potential, VSM, TGA, DSC, BET, SEM, and EDAX analysis. Experiments were conducted to optimize several key parameters involved in the photodegradation process, including pH, photocatalyst dosage, initial dye concentration, and irradiation time. The removal efficiency of Reactive Red 66 and Reactive Red 120 dyes using CoFeO nanoparticles was found to be 86.97 and 82.63%, respectively. Also, the removal percentage of these dyes using CoFeO/GO nanocomposite photocatalyst was 95.57 and 90.9% for Reactive Red 66 and Reactive Red 120, respectively. Experiments found that NiFeO nanoparticles removed 90.92% of Reactive Red 66 dye and 84.7% of Reactive Red 120 dye. The NiFeO/GO nanocomposite photocatalyst showed even higher removal efficiencies, degrading 97.96% of Reactive Red 66 and 93.44% of Reactive Red 120. After three days of exposure to visible light irradiation, the removal percentage of Reactive Red 66 using MFeO and MFeO/GO nanocomposite was investigated.