Investigation of photoreduction of Cr (VI) and electrocatalytic properties of hydrothermally produced novel CoFe2O4/ZnO nanostructure

A hydrothermal technique was used to create a CoFe2O4/ZnO (CFO/ZO) nanocomposite for the photoreduction of hexavalent chromium. To boost the photocatalytic efficiency of the nanohybrid, CoFe2O4 (CFO) nanoparticles were added to ZnO (ZO) nanoparticles. The photoreduction efficacy of the catalyst was measured for the conversion of hexavalent Cr into trivalent Cr. The results demonstrate that CFO exhibited a 91.20% photoreduction efficiency for Cr (VI) compared to CoFe2O4 (86.81%) and ZO (72.52%). This obtained rate constant for CFO, ZO and CFO/ZO are 0.020, 0.014 & 0.0255 min−1, respectively. The electrochemical results suggest that the CFO/ZO exhibited a smaller Rct value (2.718 Ω) than the CFO (5.97 Ω) and ZO (4.12 Ω). The outcome indicates that CFO/ZO can effectively detoxify the noxious chemical like Cr (VI) by photoreduction to a less hazardous state (Cr III) than the ZO and CFO pristine materials.