Highly efficient nanostructured CoFe₂ O₄ thin film electrodes for electrochemical degradation of rhodamine B

In this work, we report the application of highly efficient electrodeposited cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂ O₄ ) thin films in electrochemical degradation of rhodamine B. XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopic studies confirmed the formation of single phase CoFe₂ O₄ . SEM analysis revealed a very fine nanorods dispersed uniformly with average size around 30 nm. UV-Vis spectrophotometry emphasized that the optical band gap value is 1.6 eV. Moreover, the elaborated CoFe₂ O₄ thin films showed a good efficiency for the electrochemical degradation of an aqueous solution of rhodamine B (RhB) attaining 99% during the first 3 min of reaction time. The trapping experiments revealed that the hydroxyl radicals were the main active species leading to the removal of RhB initial concentration of 10 mg/L in a very short time. PRACTITIONER POINTS: A simple electrodeposition technique was used to fabricate CoFe₂ O₄ thin. XRD and FTIR studies revealed the formation of pure cubic spinel phase. Nano-rod like morphology has been successfully synthesized. The rhodamine B aqueous solution has been completely decolorized using the obtained CoFe₂ O₄ thin films.