TY - JOUR A1 - Baynosa, M. L. A1 - Mady, A. H. A1 - Nguyen, V. Q. A1 - Kumar, D. R. A1 - Sayed, M. S. A1 - Tuma, Dirk A1 - Shim, J.-J. T1 - Eco-friendly synthesis of recyclable mesoporous zinc ferrite@reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite for efficient photocatalytic dye degradation under solar radiation JF - Journal of Colloid and Interface Science N2 - Zinc ferrite and graphene composites have attracted considerable attention in wastewater treatment. In this work, a magnetically separable mesoporous composite of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was prepared through a simple and eco-friendly method with pure water as solvent and without the need for subsequent thermal treatment. Uniformly dispersed ZnFe2O4 NPs on the surface of rGO sheets exhibited good crystallinity and a large BET specific surface area. These factors contributed to good photocatalytic performance of the composite for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under simulated solar-light radiation, increased adsorptivity, increased separation efficiency of the photo-excited charges on the surface of the catalyst, and broadened light-absorption range of the composite. Efficient interfacial interaction between the ZnFe2O4 NPs and rGO sheets resulted in synergistic effects. The magnetically separable ZnFe2O4@rGO nanocomposite proved an efficient and stable catalyst in three consecutive photodegradation cycles for MB dye in aqueous solution under solar radiation. In addition, the synthesis method proposed in this study could be scaled-up easily due to the simplicity of the process, the lack of a toxic reagent, and the use of low temperatures. KW - Zinc ferrite KW - Reduced graphene oxide KW - Nanocomposite KW - Wastewater PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.018 SN - 0021-9797 VL - 561 SP - 459 EP - 469 PB - Elsevier B. V. CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-50211 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Szczerba, Wojciech A1 - Zukrowski, J. A1 - Przybylski, M. A1 - Sikora, M. A1 - Safonova, O. A1 - Shmeliov, A. A1 - Nicolosi, V. A1 - Schneider, M. A1 - Granath, T. A1 - Oppmann, M. A1 - Straßer, M. A1 - Mandel, K. T1 - Pushing up the magnetisation values for iron oxide nanoparticles via zinc doping: X-ray studies on the particle's sub-nano structure of different synthesis routes JF - Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics N2 - The maximum magnetisation (saturation magnetisation) obtainable for iron oxide nanoparticles can be increased by doping the nanocrystals with non-magnetic elements such as zinc. Herein, we closely study how only slightly different synthesis approaches towards such doped nanoparticles strongly influence the resulting sub-nano/atomic structure. We compare two co-precipitation approaches, where we only vary the base (NaOH versus NH3), and a thermal decomposition route. These methods are the most commonly applied ones for synthesising doped iron oxide nanoparticles. The measurable magnetisation change upon zinc doping is about the same for all systems. However, the sub-nano structure, which we studied with Mössbauer and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy, differs tremendously. We found evidence that a much more complex picture has to be drawn regarding what happens upon Zn doping compared to what textbooks tell us about the mechanism. Our work demonstrates that it is crucial to study the obtained structures very precisely when “playing” with the atomic order in iron oxide nanocrystals. KW - Magnetic nanoparticles KW - Zinc ferrite KW - magnetic saturation KW - Mössbauer KW - XAFS KW - Synthesis KW - XRD PY - 2016 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-379583 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CP04221J VL - 18 SP - 25221 EP - 25229 PB - RSC Publishing AN - OPUS4-37958 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -