Degradation of organic Pollutant by Using of BiVO₄–NiFe₂O₄ Heterostructure Photocatalyst under Visible Light Irradiation: Assessment of Detoxicity Study Using Cirrhinus mrigala

Abstract

The current study mainly concentrates on the photocatalytic activity of composite nanomaterial of BiVO 4 (BVO), NiFe 2 O 4 (NFO), and BiVO 4 −NiFe 2 O 4 (BVO-NFO) under visible light. Among these, BVO-NFO composite degrades crystal violet dye within 60 min with a percentage degradation of 95.65% under visible light illumination. The BVO-NFO composite exhibits better photodegradation performance, which can be attributed to the effective light absorption and reduced recombination of the photoexcited charge carriers. Additionally, by applying a magnetic field, the BVO-NFO composite can be magnetically recovered by using the magnet for subsequent recycling. The synthesized composite was characterized using optical techniques like X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer−Emmett−Teller, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The effect of dye, before and after degradation, on vital organs of fish species was examined such as fish gill (pulmonary-toxicity), fish liver (hepato-toxicity), fish kidney (renal toxicity), fish brain (neural toxicity), and fish muscle (myopathy). This work offers a clear and practical method for designing a highly crystalline semiconductor photocatalyst for dye degradation and the remediation of industrial wastewater.