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Lanthanide loaded dopamine modified spinel nanoferrites: Novel photocatalyst with enhanced catalytic activity

  • Original Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials with surface modification for applications
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Abstract

Magnetically separable different lanthanide metal loaded dopamine modified spinel ferrite nanostructures have been synthesized. Dopamine was used to introduce amine functionalities over the surface of ferrite nanoparticles which provide perfect binding and stabilization to the loaded metal nanoparticles. Modification of the surface of ferrite nanoparticles has been confirmed with the emergence of different vibrational bands in the IR spectra. Appearance of diffraction peaks of loaded metals along with the peaks of modified ferrite nanoparticles substantiates the loading of respective metal nanoparticles. HR-TEM, EDS patterns and FE-SEM elemental mapping studies validates the formation and purity of the samples. Elemental mapping supports the uniform binding of the metal nanoparticles over the surface of modified ferrite nanoparticles. Catalytic proficiency for all the synthesized samples has been compared toward the degradation of nitrophenols. Metal loaded samples possessed excellent catalytic activity irrespective of the nature of metal loaded for the degradation of nitrophenols. The results validated these nanostructures as potential photocatalysts for the degradation of nitrophenols with a marked advantage of stable and recoverable nature.

Graphical abstract

Lanthanide based modified ferrite nanoparticles have been utilized efficiently as photocatalyst for the eradication of nitrophenols from wastewater.

Highlights

  • Lanthanide metal loaded modified ferrite nanoparticles were well synthesized.

  • Synthesized nanoparticles were used for the degradation of nitrophenols.

  • Degradation process fitted best to pseudo first order kinetics.

  • M@Dopa@CoF NPs are more catalytically active as compare to M@Dopa@NiF NPs.

  • Interestingly, 10 wt% La, 20 wt% Ce and 10 wt% Nd presented best results.

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Funding

The authors are highly thankful to CSIR (Grant no. (09/135(0708)/2015-EMR-I).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    Rupal Malik, Twinkle Garg & Sonal Singhal

  2. HR-TEM Facility Lab, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, (NIPER), SAS Nagar, 160062, Punjab, India

    Vinod Kumar & K. B. Tikoo

  3. School of Physics & Materials Science, Thapar University, Patiala, 147004, India

    Bhupendra Chudasama

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  1. Rupal Malik
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Malik, R., Garg, T., Kumar, V. et al. Lanthanide loaded dopamine modified spinel nanoferrites: Novel photocatalyst with enhanced catalytic activity. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 106, 199–214 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-022-06000-x

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