Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Spinel CuxMn1-xFe2O4 Nanocatalysts for the Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye and Opto-Magnetic Properties

Copper doped spinel manganese ferrite (CuxMn1-xFe2O4: x = 0.0-1.0) nanoparticles were prepared successfully by a facile microwave irradiation technique using urea as the fuel. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that all samples have pure cubic spinel phase, and the average crystallite size is found to be in the range of 14.55 to 19.27 nm. The surface morphology of the samples were analyzed by high resolution scanning electron microscope (HR-SEM) analysis, and was found that nanoparticles like morphology of the powders. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis showed that the all composition have pure spinel phase. The magnetic properties were investigated at room temperature by using the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and the magnetic hysteresis (M-H) loops confirmed the ferromagnetic behavior for all the samples with magnetization (M-s) values are decreased with increasing in the Cu2+ ions. Photocatalytic degradation (PCD) of methylene blue dye was carried and it was observed that PCD efficiency is increased with increasing the concentration of Cu up to x = 0.6, and the sample Cu0.6Mn0.4Fe2O4 shows better activity (98.54%) than other samples.