Synthesis of CoFe₂O₄/TiO₂/PANI Nanocomposite Photocatalyst, and Examination of Its Decolorization Efficiency on Rhodamine B

Abstract

This study aims to reduce the band gap by doping wide band‐gap TiO2 with CoFe2O4 and PANI to improve the photocatalytic efficiency and examine the decolorization kinetic of Rhodamine B (RhB). The characteristics of the nanocomposites were thoroughly assessed through the utilization of SEM‐EDS, TEM, XRD, FTIR, VSM, UV‐Vis, PL, and XPS analyses. The SEM and TEM analyses revealed that CoFe2O4/TiO2/PANI has a homogeneously porous structure. XRD analysis results were found to show good agreement with the standard diffraction data cards. The band structures obtained by FTIR analyses were compatible with literature studies. The band gap energies determined by UV‐Vis analyses were determined as 2.86 eV for CoFe2O4/TiO2/PANI. The decrease of CoFe2O4/TiO2/PANI recombination rate was proven with PL results. The different initial dye concentrations, temperature, and light intensity parameters were used to determine the decolorization kinetics of RhB over CoFe2O4/TiO2/PANI. The photodegradation rates of RhB in reactions catalyzed by PANI, CoFe2O4, commercial‐TiO2, CoFe2O4/TiO2, and CoFe2O4/TiO2/PANI were determined as 7.6 %, 20.7 %, 26.6 %, 32.4 %, and 48.8 %, respectively. According to data obtained from the decolorization of RhB on CoFe2O4/TiO2/PANI nanocomposite, the appropriate kinetic model was determined Network kinetic. The adsorption equilibrium constant (KB) and activation energy (Ea) were calculated as 0.007 and 7.9 kJ/mol, respectively.