Synthesis of Ag-Fe3O4 nanoparticles for degradation of methylene blue in aqueous medium

Fe3O4 known as magnetite is one of the oxides of iron which plays a major role in various fields of sciences. Fe3O4 was synthesized by precipitation method using NH3.H2O, FeCl2.4H2O and FeCl3.6H2O as precursor materials. For synthesis of 5% Ag-Fe3O4, the green synthetic method was used for immobilization of Ag nanoparticles on Fe3O4 using leaves extract of Calotropis gigantea plant. The synthesized Fe3O4 and 5% Ag-Fe3O4 were employed as catalyst in degradation of methylene blue. The photo catalytic activity of Fe3O4 was remarkably enhanced by doping of Fe3O4 with Ag nanoparticles. Advanced instrumental techniques including XRD, EDX, TGA and SEM were used for characterization of synthesized particles. The immobilization of Ag on Fe3O4 enhanced the photo degradation of methylene blue from 40 to 72% at 40 °C which confirms that 5% Ag-Fe3O4 is an active catalyst for treatment of dye contaminated water. Ag-Fe3O4 exhibited almost same catalytic activity in two successive cycles. Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2020, 34(1), 123-134. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v34i1.11