Magnetically Recoverable BiVO4/NiFe2O4 Nanocomposite Photocatalyst For Efficient Detoxification of Polluted Water Under Collected Sunlight

Abstract Present work focused on the photocatalytic activity of NiFe2O4 (NFO), BiVO4 (BFO) and BiVO4/NiFe2O4 (BVO/NFO) composite nanoparticles under natural and collected sunlight. Among the samples, BVO/NFO photocatalyst shown 95 % and 98 % degradation of Methylene blue (MB) in 240 min of natural and 30 min of collected sunlight illumination respectively. Thus BVO/NFO composite shows superior photodegradation performance under collected sunlight irradiation compared to natural sunlight which is accredited to the efficient light absorption and low recombination of the photoexcited charge carriers. Furthermore, the BVO/NFO composite nanoparticles was magnetically-retrievable for sequential recycling by applied magnetic field. The XRD measured before and after sequential recycling BVO/NFO composite reveal that present photocatalyst has excellent photochemical stability as it repeatedly degrades MB over 95 %, even after four cycles of the photocatalysis process. This study would offers a potential route for exploration of the photocatalytic performance of BVO/NFO nanoparticles under collected sunlight.