Facile Synthesis and Characterization of Spinel NiFe2O4 Nanoparticles and Studies of Their Photocatalytic Activity for Oxidation of Alcohols

In this paper, we report a novel and facile approach for the synthesis of spinel NiFe2O4 nanoparticles and studies of its photocatalytic activity for oxidation of alcohols. The as-synthesized catalyst was thoroughly characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), elemental mapping, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherm (BET) analysis. The TEM image reveals cubic shapes with an average particle size of 10-20 nm. The as-synthesized spinel NiFe2O4 has proved to be an excellent photocatalyst for oxidation of alcohol to the aldehyde with a conversion of 80% and selectivity of 99%. The catalyst has also proved to be noteworthy as it does not loss its catalytic activity even after five cycles of reuse.