Title: Synthesis and characterization of Ag-Fe3O4 nanoparticles and evaluation of their photo catalytic activity

Biography:

Muhammad Saeed has completed his PhD in 2011 from National Center of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar Pakistan. Presently he is working as Assistant Professor at Department of Chemistry, Government College University Faisalabad Pakistan since 2013. He has published 40 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.      
 

Abstract

Fe₃O₄ known as magnetite is one of the oxides of iron which plays a major role in various fields of sciences. Fe₃O₄ was synthesized precipitation method using FeCl₃⸳6H₂O, FeCl₂⸳4H₂O and NH₃⸳H₂O as precursor materials. The synthesized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were used as photo catalyst for aqueous phase photo degradation of methylene blue. The photo catalytic activity of Fe3O4 was remarkably enhanced by doping of Fe₃O₄ with Ag nanoparticles. Ag nanoparticles were immobilized on Fe₃O₄ by green method using leaves extract of Calotropis gigantea plant. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by advanced techniques, XRD, EDX, TGA and SEM. The synthesized Ag-Fe₃O₄ were successfully tested as photo catalyst for aqueous phase degradation of methylene blue dye under visible irradiation. The degradation of 0.0188 M (50 mL) methylene blue dye solution obtained after treatment of dye with Fe₃O₄ and Ag-Fe₃O₄ for 120 minutes was 41 and 73% respectively. The degradation kinetics in present study was described by Eley–Rideal mechanism.