Zinc Ferrite Nanoparticles in Photo-Degradation of Dye: Mini-Review

Abstract

Organic pollutants are the largest kind of pollutants released into waters and wastewater from the some industry and industrial processes. Photocatalytic degradation is one of the significant and effective methods to remove the dyes and other organic pollutant from water and wastewater. This mini-review presents the application of zinc ferrites and ZnFe₂O₄-based composites in the photocatalytic degradation of organic dye. The zinc ferrite nanomaterials are obtained mainly by thermal methods, sol-gel, co-precipitation, and solid-state or hydrothermal route. Zinc Ferrites have good photocatalytic activity, but when exploited as composite photocatalysts, their photocatalytic efficiency were increased. AS a critical magnetic material, the ZnFe₂O₄ spinel structure has been proven to be useful in removal dye, ZnFe₂O₄ have photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. However, it is possible to improve the efficiency of photocatalysis activity of ZnFe₂O₄ by coupling it with another semiconductor or coupling it with carbon nanotubes and graphene, resulting in enhanced photocatalytic performance.