A Facile Approach for the Synthesis of Zinc Ferrite/Alkali Cellulose as an Effective Magnetic Photocatalyst for the Degradation of Methylene Blue in Aqueous Solution

Abstract The spinel zinc ferrite/alkali cellulose composite has been successfully fabricated as a magnetic photocatalyst and assessed for its photocatalytic activity toward the degradation of methylene blue (MB) in an aqueous solution. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), BET, and zeta potential were used to evaluate the magnetic photocatalyst composite and investigate its adsorption mechanism. Furthermore, the adsorption behavior of the composite was studied under various conditions. The ZnFe2O4/alkali cellulose composite effectively degraded (100%) MB after 180 min at a pH of 6.5 compared to cellulose, alkali cellulose and ZnFe2O4. The regeneration of the loaded composite was studied using the alcohol/water solution and reused upon a certain variation in the efficiency after the fourth cycle. The adsorption process was found to be consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model.