Photocatalytic Removal of Methylene Blue Dye Using CoZnFe2O4/SiO2 Magnetic Nanoparticles

The magnetic photocatalyst of CoZnFe2O4/SiO2 nanoparticles has been synthesized to degrade methylene blue (MB) dye. The CoZnFe2O4 nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation method under mechanical stirring and coated with SiO2 by stöber method using Na2SiO2 with various concentrations of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, and 50%. The properties of CoZnFe2O4/SiO2 were confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and UV-Visible spectroscopy. XRD analysis revealed that CoZnFe2O4 had the spinel ferrite phase structure with a crystallite size of 17.0 nm, and then after coating with SiO2, the size became 17.1 nm. FTIR clearly shows an M-O octahedral vibrational bond found with a wavelength of 378 cm-1, O-Si-O, Si-OH, and Si-O-Fe at 1087, 794, and 570 cm-1, respectively. The saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercivity of CoZnFe2O4/SiO2 were 29.0 emu/g and 251.9 Oe, respectively. Furthermore, the results of UV-Visible data presented that the absorption edges CoZnFe2O4/SiO2 in the range of 190-600 nm. The percentage of CoZnFe2O4 degradation is 88.4%, while after coted SiO2 50%, the degradation becomes 98.9%.