Sonochemical Facile Synthesis of Self-Assembled Poly(<i>o</i>-phenylenediamine)/Cobalt Ferrite Nanohybrid with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

Although several photocatalytic materials have been discovered, developing an efficient visible light photocatalyst is still a great challenge in the photocatalysis field, because the existing inorganic semiconductors are only active in the ultraviolet (UV) range. With the aim to enhance the photocatalytic activity of CoFe 2 O 4 in the visible region, the present preliminary study reports the synthesis of nanocomposites of CoFe 2 O 4 /poly( o -phenylenediamine) nanohybrid. The structure of the synthesized nanohybrid was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. Photocatalytic activity of the nanohybrid was investigated using Malachite Green (MG) as a model dye. Results revealed that enhanced photocatalytic activity was achieved in the visible range, because of the generation of holes in the narrow band gap of CoFe 2 O 4 via sensitization with poly( o -phenylenediamine). A plausible pathway and mechanism for the photocatalytic degradation of Malachite Green (MG) is also discussed.