Ni and Co substituted zinc ferri-chromite: A study of their influence in photocatalytic performance

Abstract Enhanced photocatalytic activity was demonstrated in the present study for two systems i.e. Zn 1- x Ni x FeCrO 4 and Zn 1- x Co x FeCrO 4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) in photo degradation of methyl orange, methyl red and congo red dyes. The basic aim of this study is to find a suitable compound of doped zinc ferrichromite as photocatalyst for degradation of organic dyes. A sol–gel process used for synthesis of crystalline nanopowders gave better photocatalytic activity under the UV light radiations. The result showed that, dyes undergo fast degradation with UV light in presence of doped compounds. The rate of degradation of dyes was estimated spectro-photometrically from residual concentration in dyes.