Synthesis, enhanced optical and photocatalytic study of Cd–Zn ferrites under sunlight

Nanocrystalline CdxZn1−xFe2O4 (where x = 0.0, 0.3, 0.7, 1.0) were prepared successfully by a soft chemical synthesis method and were characterized by XRD, SEM, XEDS, FTIR and UV–vis techniques. X-Ray diffraction studies revealed the formation of single phase spinel structure of the samples. Light absorption properties of the Cd–Zn ferrite nanocrystals were studied by a UV–Vis spectrophotometer. It was found that the energy band gap of cadmium ferrite is 1.46 eV, which is smaller than that of prepared zinc ferrite (1.95 eV). Thus cadmium substitution into zinc ferrite results in substantial shifting of the absorption edge of zinc ferrite to red and enhancement of visible light absorption. The photocatalytic results for degradation of methyl orange (MO) indicated that the cadmium substitution dramatically enhances the catalytic activity of zinc ferrite. This means that cadmium substituted zinc ferrite shows the highest photocatalytic activity under solar light irradiation. Thus cadmium substituted zinc ferrite utilizes the possibility of solar energy in the solar spectrum.