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Study of structural, magnetic and optical properties of oxygen plasma-treated manganese-doped iron oxide photocatalyst for wastewater treatment

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Abstract

The manganese-based magnetic photocatalyst was prepared using a facile sol–gel method and given microwave plasma treatment for 30 min. The photocatalyst was characterized for structural, magnetic, electrical and optical properties to check its suitability for photocatalytic degradation of methyl blue from wastewater. The plasma-treated photocatalyst exhibits more porous morphology than the untreated one. The crystallite size of untreated photocatalyst was calculated about 36 nm, which increased to 39 nm on plasma treatment. Similarly, the lattice parameter before and after plasma treatment was measured about 8.3552 Å and 8.4873 Å, respectively. The untreated photocatalyst had the band gap of 5.17 eV, which reduced to 4.98 eV on plasma treatment. The light absorption peak of the photocatalyst increased from 578 to 599 nm on plasma treatment. The plasma-treated and untreated photocatalysts showed 91% and 74% dye degradation efficiency, respectively. These catalysts retained 97% and 93% efficiency, respectively, after five cycles of dye degradation. The saturation magnetization was measured about 0.79 emu/g and 0.66 emu/g, respectively. The coercivity of untreated sample was measured about 0.3 kOe, which reduced to 0.1 kOe on plasma treatment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Deputy for Research and Innovation—Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for this research through a grant (NU/IFC/INT/01/010) under the institutional Funding Committee at Najran University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan

    M. Y. Naz, S. Shukrullah & I. Ahmad

  2. Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Najran University Saudi Arabia, Najran, 61441, Saudi Arabia

    S. Rahman & M. S. Jalalah

  3. Department of Physics, Riphah International University, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    A. Ghuffar

  4. Mechanical Engineering Department, National University of Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

    U. M. Niazi

  5. Empty Quarter Research Unit, Chemistry Department, College of Science and Art at Sharurah, Najran University Saudi Arabia, Najran, 61441, Saudi Arabia

    M. A. Alsaiari

  6. Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Najran University Saudi Arabia, Najran, 61441, Saudi Arabia

    M. K. A. Khan

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  1. M. Y. Naz
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Naz, M.Y., Irfan, M., Shukrullah, S. et al. Study of structural, magnetic and optical properties of oxygen plasma-treated manganese-doped iron oxide photocatalyst for wastewater treatment. Appl. Phys. A 127, 491 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04646-y

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