Catalytic degradation of toxic organic dye using an aluminum‐doped Cu0.4Zn0.6‐xAlxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) spinel ferrite in a photo‐Fenton system.

Catalytic activity of spinel ferrite in breaking down toxic dye materials are promising due to their uniqueness. In this study, aluminum‐doped copper zinc ferrite, Cu0.4Zn0.6‐xAlxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6), a catalyst for toxic dye degradation is synthesized through chemical co‐precipitation route. The formation of the spinel ferrite catalyst is initially confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectra, which shows the frequency of metal‐oxygen bond vibration at 539 and 427 cm−1 attributed to the tetrahedral and octahedral sites respectively. Higher intensity sharp peak of X‐ray diffraction for (311) plane is the evidence for the phase purity and the formation of spinel ferrite. The crystallite size is found to decrease with the increase of Al3+ ion. The surface structure of the obtained particles is investigated using a scanning electron microscope. Analyses of the material's magnetic characteristics using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) revealed that it is, in fact, a soft magnet, as evidenced by the loop of its hysteresis, which is narrow. The catalytic degradation of methylene blue dye under the mechanism of the photo‐Fenton process is studied with the obtained spinel ferrites and the result is found to be as high as 96.5%. The process follows pseudo‐second order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]