Synthesis and characterization of novel magnetically separable CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposite photocatalysts

• Novel CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by coupling facile methods.
• High surface area and small particle size of CoFe2O4/CeO2 were obtained.
• The CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposite display soft magnetic behavior.
• This novel CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposite is the promising a magnetically separable photocatalyst.

The novel CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposite materials were successfully synthesized by coupling a homogeneous precipitation method with hydrothermal method. The mole ratios of CoFe2O4:CeO2 in this study were varied as follows: 0.2:0.8, 0.4:0.6, 0.5:0.5, 0.6:0.4 and 0.8:0.2. The obtained CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) techniques. The magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 and CoFe2O4/CeO2 samples were determined by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. The characteristic results of CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposite samples indicated that they had a cubic structure. All CoFe2O4/CeO2 composite particles existed as spherical-like shape and showed high specific surface area in the range of 98–180 m2 g−1. The saturation magnetization (Ms) of 0.4CoFe2O4:0.6CeO2 nanocomposite was 25.375 emu g−1. The CoFe2O4/CeO2 nanocomposite was expected to use as a magnetic photocatalyst for degrading some organic compounds.

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