Enhanced Opto-Magneto Properties of NixMg1-xFe2O4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) Ferrites Nano-Catalysts

Spinel NixMg1-xFe2O4 (0.0 <= x <= 1.0) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized via sol-gel combustion method and characterized using different techniques such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transforms Infrared (FT-IR) spectra, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), Photoluminescence (PL) spectra and Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The morphological and structural investigations revealed that NixMg1-xFe2O4 (0.0 <= x <= 1.0) samples posses particle shaped morphologies and exhibited pure crystalline phase of a cubic spinel structure with an average crystalline size of 21.22 nm to 15.65 nm for the samples x = 0.0 to 0.6. FT-IR spectra indicate the bonds between metal and oxygen (M-O) and confirmed the formation of spinel. The magnetic hysteresis (M-H) loops confirmed the ferromagnetic behavior of the synthesized nanoparticles. Photocatalytic activities of spinel NixMg1-xFe2O4 NPs were tested towards the degradation of methylene blue, which revealed that the NixMg1-xFe2O4 nanoparticles with the x 0.6 exhibited the highest degradation efficiency of similar to 97.77% among other prepared ferrite NPs.