Photocatalytic performance of Fe-substituted ZnAl2O4 powders under sunlight irradiation on degradation of industrial dyes

Using the sol–gel auto combustion method with diethanolamine (DEA) as fuel, a sequence of iron-substituted zinc aluminates, ZnFe_xAl_2-xO₄ powders, including variable Fe³⁺ ion concentrations (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) were effectively prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were employed to examine the structures, chemical bonds, morphologies, composition, surface area, and optical properties as well as the magnetic behavior of the obtained samples. A single-phase spinel structure was obtained for the calcined aluminate powders with different interplanar spacing and crystallite sizes, as revealed by the classification results. The bandgap energy (E_g) of adapted aluminates was in the range of 2.04-3.14 eV, identified as being much lower compared to the pure sample (5.60 eV). Thus, Fe³⁺-substituted ZnAl₂O₄ samples could be successfully photoexcited using both ultraviolet and visible light, as suggested by the results. Examination of how the four main pollutant types decay when irradiated by sunlight was carried out to assess the samples and establish photocatalytic activity. These contaminants included rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), and methyl red (MR). The performance of photocatalytic degradation reached 98% after 150 min for all optimal samples of organic dyes. Besides, each of the altered photocatalysts could be recycled and displayed high stability. The S-shaped curve of ferrimagnetism can result in those samples as found by the magnetic measurements, though pure ZnAl₂O₄ displays diamagnetic characteristics. The adapted samples show intense improvement in the remanent magnetization (M_r) when compared to pure ZnAl₂O₄, signifying that magnetic photocatalyst recovery by applying an external magnetic field is easy. Thus, these results offer a convincing sign that ZnAl₂O₄ powders replaced by Fe³⁺ could provide the ability to aid in the ecologically friendly collection of solar energy.