IP: 146.185.205.111 On: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 03:26:59
Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
Delivered by Ingenta
Copyright © 2017 American Scientific Publishers
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Article
Journal of
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Vol. 17, 8918–8924, 2017
www.aspbs.com/jnn
Synthesis and Characterization of
Ag/CoFe
2
O
4
/Polyaniline Nanocomposite
for Photocatalytic Application
Venkata Sai Sriram Mosali
1 2
, Mohd. Qasim
1
, Bhanu Mullamuri
1 2
,
Basavaiah Chandu
2
, and Dibakar Das
1 ∗
1
School of Engineering Sciences and Technology (SEST), University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500046, India
2
Department of Nanotechnology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar, Guntur 522510, India
Ag/cobalt ferrite/polyaniline (CPA) nanocomposite has been synthesized by in-situ polymerization
of aniline on preformed cobalt ferrite and Ag nanoparticles. Monodisperse cobalt ferrite (15–20 nm)
and Ag (∼10 nm) nanoparticles were prepared by coprecipitation and citrate reduction method
respectively. Prepared nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission
electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-Vis spectrophotometry.
XRD confirms the presence of spinel cobalt ferrite nanoparticles in the composite. HRTEM results
reveal the formation of core/shell structures of cobalt ferrite/polyaniline and also confirm presence
of Ag NPs in the composite. SEM images show formation of aggregates of CPA nanocomposites
and their corresponding EDS spectra confirms the elemental composition of the composites. The
obtained CPA nanocomposite exhibits promising photocatalytic activity on azo dye methylene blue
under sunlight and hence could be a potential candidate in water purification technologies.
Keywords: Cobalt Ferrite, Polyaniline, Silver Nanoparticles, Core/Shell Nanocomposites,
Photocatalysis.
1. INTRODUCTION
Water pollution, resulting from industrial effluents contain-
ing large amount of organic dyes from textile, cosmetic,
paper and petrochemical industries is a matter of great con-
cern to the mankind.
1 2
Synthetic dyes being highly toxic,
finding suitable catalyst for degrading them has been the
subject of intense research.
2
Photocatalytic degradation is
considered to be an effective method due to its low cost
and enhanced activity without any further pollution.
3 4
Due
to their abundancy in nature, biocompatibility, stability in
various conditions, light absorption properties, ability to
generate charge carriers when exposed to required amount
of light energy and their excited life times, metal oxide
nanoparticles are widely used as photocatalysts.
5
How-
ever, the recombination of charge carriers restricts bare
metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) to be used as photocata-
lysts. Development of core/shell nanostructures has been
emerged as an excellent alternative to this problem.
∗
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Inorganic/organic nanocomposites are quite attractive
because of their improved structural, thermal, optical and
electrical properties.
6–8
Magnetic nanoparticles have exten-
sively been used as core because of their high catalytic
activity with easier separation capability. This improves
the recyclability of the catalyst. Among the magnetic
nanocores, Fe
3
O
4
, BaFe
2
O
4
, NiFe
2
O
4
and CoFe
2
O
4
are
suitable choices.
9
Belonging to the family of spinel-
type ferrites, CoFe
2
O
4
shows high coercivity, magnetic
anisotropy, moderate magnetization, good chemical stabil-
ity and mechanical hardness.
10–12
Ferrite based nanocom-
posites have been proven good photocatalyst in our
previous studies.
13
Also, CoFe
2
O
4
when combined with
organic or polymer nanostructures, its band gap can be
tuned and hence have the potential for applications in elec-
tronics, photonics, information storage, catalysis, etc.
14–17
Polyaniline (PANi) is a well-known conducting conjugated
polymer which has high absorption coefficient in the vis-
ible range and high mobility of the charge carriers and
hence could have potential as photocatalyst.
17–20
8918 J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 2017, Vol. 17, No. 12 1533-4880/2017/17/8918/007 doi:10.1166/jnn.2017.13903