Preparation of magnetic graphene oxide-ferrite nanocomposites for oxidative decomposition of Remazol Black B

A solvothermal synthesis method was used to prepare graphene oxide (GO) supported ferrite (MFe2O4, M = Fe, Co and Ni) nanocomposites. Subsequently, the application of MFe2O4 nanocomposites as photocatalyst for Remazol Black B (RBB) removal was investigated. The nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and vibrating sample magnetometer. It was shown that dispersed MFe2O4 microspheres with uniform size (20-30 nm) were homogeneously deposited on GO nanosheets. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) studies show superparamagnetic behavior of all nanocomposites in the range of 41-43 emu/g at room temperature. In general, the obtained nanocomposites are effective photocatalyst for the removal of dye pollutant. The batch adsorption experiments showed that the adsorption of the RBB is considerably dependent on pH of milieu, amount of nanocomposite, and contact time. Under the same operational conditions, the optimal parameters for the prepared GO/MFe2O4 nanocomposites are: dye dosage = 10 ppm, contact time = 60 min, photocatalyst mass = 5 mg, and pH = 3. The adsorption kinetics was investigated to show that it was well-described by pseudo-first order model. Finally, it can be concluded that the GO/MFe2O4 nanocomposites are promising nano-photocatalyst, which can be used for application in dye removal from the wastewater.