Sonochemical Facile Synthesis of Self-Assembled Poly(o-phenylenediamine)/Cobalt Ferrite Nanohybrid with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity.

Although several photocatalytic materials have been discovered, developing an efficient visible light photocatalyst is still a great challenge in the photocatalysis field, because the existing inorganic semiconductors are only active in the ultraviolet (UV) range. With the aim to enhance the photocatalytic activity of CoFe2O4 in the visible region, the present preliminary study reports the synthesis of nanocomposites of CoFe2O4/poly(o-phenylenediamine) nanohybrid. The structure of the synthesized nanohybrid was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. Photocatalytic activity of the nanohybrid was investigated using Malachite Green (MG) as a model dye. Results revealed that enhanced photocatalytic activity was achieved in the visible range, because of the generation of holes in the narrow band gap of CoFe2O4 via sensitization with poly(o-phenylenediamine). A plausible pathway and mechanism for the photocatalytic degradation of Malachite Green (MG) is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]