The Novel Green Magnetic Nanospheres: Synthesis, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Activity Against Organic pollutant

Using green chemistry is an attractive proposed method for making nano photocatalysts for the photodegradation of organic pollutants. This work introduces the novel magnetic green nickel ferrite for the removal of dyes from wastewater. In this regard, green nickel ferrite nanostructures were prepared through a wet chemical route. The peppermint extract was utilized for the engineering of shape and size. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analyses confirmed the formation of pure nickel ferrite with a desirable crystalline structure. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) approved that the peppermint extract leads to the formation of regular and uniform nickel ferrite. The obtained hysteresis loop from the vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) showed the superparamagnetic behavior of prepared nickel ferrite. The optical property is a key factor for photocatalytic activity. So UV-Vis spectroscopy was applied for characterizing the optical properties of the sample. The optical band gap of prepared nickel ferrite was calculated 2.88 eV. Finally, the prepared green nickel ferrite was applied to remove rhodamine B and methylene blue from the water solution. The results showed that prepared nickel ferrite can be introduced as a promising candidate for the removal of organic pollutants. The prepared nano photocatalyst could photodegrade 71.6% and 84.2% of rhodamine B and methylene blue under visible light.