Abstract

To promote the low photocatalytic efficiency caused by the recombination of electron/hole pairs and widen the photo-response wavelength window, ZnFe(2)O(4)@ZnO-N/B/RGO and ZnFe(2)O(4)@ZnO-C(3)N(4) ternary heterojunction nanophotocatalysts were designed and successfully prepared through a sol-gel technique. In comparison to bare ZnFe(2)O(4) and ZnO, the ZnFe(2)O(4)-ZnO@N/B/RGO and ZnFe(2)O(4)@ZnO-C(3)N(4) ternary products showed highly improved photocatalytic properties in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under ultra-violet (UV) and visible light irradiation. Various physicochemical properties of the photocatalysts were evaluated through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The observations indicated that the ternary heterojuncted ZnFe(2)O(4)@ZnO-N/B/RGO absorbs lower energy visible light wavelengths, which is an enhancement in the photocatalytic properties of ZnFe(2)O(4)@ZnO loaded on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets and graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C(3)N(4)). This gives the catalyst photo-Fenton degradation properties.