Structural, optical and photocatalytic activity of Ce3+ doped Co–Mg nanoparticles for wastewater treatment applications

Chemical effluent, particularly organic dyes, has become a major problem of our day because of its connection to carcinogenic health risks. Hence, rare earth element cerium (Ce) doped cobalt-magnesium ferrites were prepared with the formula Co0.7Mg0.3CexFe2-xO4 (labeled CMCF) by a combustion approach as an efficient nano-photocatalyst deliberated for disposal these pernicious dyes. The characterization tests for the CMCF nanoferrites were performed via XRD, STEM-EDS, and DR techniques. XRD results asserted the spinel single-phase formation for all the prepared CMCF ferrites. The lattice parameter and crystallite size of CMCF nanoferrites have abnormal behavior, which diminishes from 8.4077 to 8.3922 Å and 34.66 to 20.76 nm, respectively, despite the superseding process is a larger ion (Ce) instead of a smaller one (Fe). STEM images of the prepared nanoparticles are almost spherical crystallites with some agglomerations. The optical band gap of CMCF nanoparticles was tuned to be narrower by Ce3+ additions. Using the photocatalyst CMCF(x = 0.1), the MB's hue faded from blue to nearly colorless with an efficiency of 95.49 %, in 60 min. Three reasons why the CMCF(x = 0.1) photocatalyst gets the superior photocatalytic performance. Four steps were introduced to manifest the MB degradation mechanism utilizing the CMCF(x = 0.1) photocatalyst. The CMCF nanomaterials have significant prospects to be operated as promising photocatalysts for toxic MB disposal through wastewater treatment processes.