Sonocatalytic performance of magnetically separable CuS/CoFe2O4 nanohybrid for efficient degradation of organic dyes

The sonocatalytic activity of the magnetic CuS/CoFe2O4 (CuS/CFO) nanohybrid was studied through the H2O2-assisted system for degradation of water soluble organic pollutants such as methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO). The CuS/CFO nanohybrid was fabricated at 200 °C by hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and Brunauere-Emmette-Teller (BET) were employed for the characterizing the structure and morphology of the so-synthesized nanohybrid. Compared with sonolysis/H2O2, the higher degradation of MB (25 mg/L) was achieved via sonocatalytic process. The degradation efficiency of sonolysis/H2O2, sonocatalysis using CuS/H2O2, CFO/H2O2 and CuS/CFO/H2O2 systems was 6%, 62%, 23% and 100% within reaction time of 30 min for MB, respectively. The integration of H2O2 and catalyst dosage intensified the sonocatalytic degradation of MB. On the other hand, adding a hydroxyl radical (OH) scavenger (tert-butyl alcohol) and a hole scavenger (disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate) decreased the degradation efficiency from 100% to 35% and 72% within 30 min, indicating the OH radicals as prominent oxidizing agent of this process. Furthermore, the magnetic property of the sample helped for easier separation of the nanohybrid, made it recyclable with a negligible decline in the performance even after four consecutive runs.