LAUSR

Composite ferrite nanoparticles Co1 – xZnxFe2O4/Ni1 – xZnxFe2O4, x = 0.1–0.5) have been synthesized by co-precipitation method and annealed at temperature of 800°C for 2 h in air. The synthesized samples have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, FE-SEM/EDS, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The prepared nanoparticles exhibit a cubic crystal structure observed from X-ray powder diffraction experiment. It has been observed that the Co0.7Zn0.3Fe2O4/Ni0.7Zn0.3Fe2O4 nanoparticles exhibit higher optical absorbance spectrum at 400 to 800 nm wavelength due to its smaller crystal size (100.8 nm) as compared to the composite ferrite nanoparticles Co0.9Zn0.1Fe2O4/Ni0.9Zn0.1Fe2O4 (176.2 nm), Co0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4/Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 (134.3 nm), Co0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4/Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 (165.6 nm), and Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4/Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 (245.6 nm) nanoparticles. The photocatalytic activity of composite ferrite nanoparticles have been studied by performing the decomposition of methylene blue dye solution under UV light irradiation within 0 to 4 h. The methylene blue dye solution was considerably photodegraded by Co0.7Zn0.3Fe2O4/Ni0.7Zn0.3Fe2O4 photocatalyst under UV irradiation within 0–4 h to the efficiency of 96%. The pseudo first order rate constant of the degradation has been found to be 0.0144 S–1. The degradation mechanisms are discussed.