Highly efficient nanostructured CoFe₂O₄ thin film electrodes for electrochemical degradation of rhodamine B

Abstract

Abstract In this work, we report the application of highly efficient electrodeposited cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ) thin films in electrochemical degradation of rhodamine B. XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopic studies confirmed the formation of single phase CoFe 2 O 4 . SEM analysis revealed a very fine nanorods dispersed uniformly with average size around 30 nm. UV‐Vis spectrophotometry emphasized that the optical band gap value is 1.6 eV. Moreover, the elaborated CoFe 2 O 4 thin films showed a good efficiency for the electrochemical degradation of an aqueous solution of rhodamine B (RhB) attaining 99% during the first 3 min of reaction time. The trapping experiments revealed that the hydroxyl radicals were the main active species leading to the removal of RhB initial concentration of 10 mg/L in a very short time. Practitioner points A simple electrodeposition technique was used to fabricate CoFe 2 O 4 thin. XRD and FTIR studies revealed the formation of pure cubic spinel phase. Nano‐rod like morphology has been successfully synthesized. The rhodamine B aqueous solution has been completely decolorized using the obtained CoFe 2 O 4 thin films.