Synthesis, structural, magnetic, textural, optical investigation and photocatalytic performance of undoped and doped cobaltite nanoparticles

Abstract

The present work deals with the synthesis and characterization of pure and transition metal (Ni, Cu and Fe) doped spinel Co₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs), which are well known for their physical and chemical features. These transition metal doped Co₃O₄ NPs were tailored through thermal decomposition of precursors synthesized by simple co-precipitation, the simple and cost-effective strategy of fabricating mesoporous spinel cobalt oxide. This study investigates the photocatalytic degradation of industrial dyes Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methyl Orange (MO) under sunlight by using NPs as catalysts. Among the different nanocatalysts, Ni doped Co₃O₄ NP exhibited the highest efficiency in degrading the environmentally harmful dyes, proving the positive correlation between surface area and photodegradation efficiency. The structures and optical properties were investigated by Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM), Ultraviolet-Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV-DRS) and Photoluminescence (PL) under dopant control. The morphology and polycrystallinity of the samples were studied using SEM-EDS and SAED patterns, respectively. The doped ferromagnetic samples showed unsaturation in hysteresis loops which specified the oxygen vacancy.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Cobalt oxide
• transition metal doped
• unsaturation
• co-precipitation
• ferromagnetic

Acknowledgement

The authors are thankful to Kongunadu Arts and Science College for providing facilities. Authors also state their huge gratitude to CIT (Coimbatore), SAIF (Cochin), IIT (Madras), Karunya University (Coimbatore), Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine (AIMS, Cochin), CSIR – National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) Thiruvananthapuram, BIT University (Bangalore) for providing instrument services.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.