Preparation and photocatalytic properties of hybrid core-shell reusable CoFe2O4-ZnO nanospheres

Magnetically separable and reusable core-shell CoFe2O4-ZnO photocatalyst nanospheres were prepared by the hydrothermal synthesis technique using glucose derived carbon nanospheres as the template. The morphology and the phase of core-shell hybrid structure of CoFe2O4-ZnO were assessed via TEM, SEM and XRD. The magnetic composite showed high UV photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue in water. The photocatalytic activity was found to be ZnO shell thickness dependent. Thicker ZnO shells lead to higher rate of photocatalytic activity. Hybrid nanospheres recovered using an external magnetic field demonstrated good repeatability of photocatalytic activity. These results promise the reusability of the hybrid nanospheres for photocatalytic activity. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.