Ba2- xHoxSr2- yNiyFe12O22 and its composite with MXene: synthesis, characterization and enhanced visible light mediated photocatalytic activity for colored dye and pesticide

Beriham Basha; Alina Manzoor; Z A Alrowaili; Ayesha Ihsan; Imran Shakir; M S Al-Buriahi

doi:10.1039/d3ra05993f

Ba_{2- x}Ho_xSr_{2- y}Ni_yFe₁₂O₂₂ and its composite with MXene: synthesis, characterization and enhanced visible light mediated photocatalytic activity for colored dye and pesticide

RSC Adv. 2023 Oct 13;13(43):29944-29958. doi: 10.1039/d3ra05993f. eCollection 2023 Oct 11.

Authors

Beriham Basha¹, Alina Manzoor², Z A Alrowaili³, Ayesha Ihsan⁴, Imran Shakir^{5

6}, M S Al-Buriahi⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University P. O. Box 84428 Riyadh 11671 Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Physics, Government College University Faisalabad 38000 Punjab Pakistan.
³ Department of Physics, College of Science, Jouf University P. O. Box 2014 Sakaka Saudia Arabia.
⁴ Institute of Chemistry, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Baghdad-ul-Jadeed Campus Bahawalpur 63100 Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Islamic University of Madinah Madinah 42351 Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, Sakarya University Sakarya Turkey.

Abstract

The rapid recombination of charges of photogenerated electrons and holes severely limits single semiconductor photocatalytic applications. In this study, a simple and facile sol-gel approach was used to synthesize Ba_2-xHo_xSr_2-yNi_yFe₁₂O₂₂ (x = 0, 0.1 and y = 0, 0.5). The composite of holmium-nickel doped barium-strontium ferrite with MXene (Ba_1.9Ho_0.1Sr_1.5Ni_0.5Fe₁₂O₂₂@MXene) was synthesized by ultrasonication method. These synthesized samples were subsequently used to photodegrade rhodamine B (RhB) and pendimethalin under visible light illumination. The results of the experiments demonstrated that MXene, as a cocatalyst, considerably reduces the rate of recombination of charges and broadens absorption of visible light by providing increased surface functional groups to improve the photocatalytic activity of synthesized samples. MXene is thermally stable, have high electrical conductivity, have adjustable bandgap, and hydrophilic in nature. The optimized Ba_1.9Ho_0.1Sr_1.5Ni_0.5Fe₁₂O₂₂@MXene composite demonstrated an excellent photocatalytic rate by degrading 78.88% RhB and 75.59% pendimethalin in 140 minutes. Moreover, the scavenging experiment revealed that photogenerated electrons and holes were the primary active species involved in RhB and pendimethalin photodegradation, respectively. Ba_1.9Ho_0.1Sr_1.5Ni_0.5Fe₁₂O₂₂@MXene showed increased photocatalytic behavior because it has increased surface area which decreases rate of recombination of electron and hole pair, hence photocatalytic activity increases. It is observed that Ba_1.9Ho_0.1Sr_1.5Ni_0.5Fe₁₂O₂₂@MXene has potential application in photocatalytic degradation of harmful pollutants.