Enhanced catalytic properties of rare-earth substituted cobalt ferrites fabricated by sol-gel auto-combustion route

Cobalt ferrite has been extensively used in catalysis owing to their remarkable physical and chemical properties. Additionally, further modifications in these properties can be achieved by changing cation distribution. The ionic radii of rare earth (RE3+) ions are larger than the Fe3+ ions. So, on the replacement of Fe3+ ion in cobalt ferrite with even a small amount of RE3+ ion, the physical and chemical properties get greatly affected due to structural distortion and lattice strain. So, in the present work doping of RE element into ferrite crystal lattice has been done via sol-gel auto-combustion route. The synthesized samples were well characterized using various techniques and the change in their structural, magnetic and optical properties was investigated. Further, for studying the effect of RE metal ion substitution on the catalytic properties, the samples were exploited as photo-Fenton catalysts for the removal of cationic and anionic dyes. The RE substituted cobalt ferrite samples exhibited remarkable enhancement in the catalytic activity in comparison to pure cobalt ferrite. The synthesized samples thus can be potentially used for combating the environmental properties. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.