Green synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-CoFe2O4 nanocomposite as a highly efficient visible-light-driven catalyst in photocatalysis and photo Fenton-like reaction

In this study, reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanocomposite was synthesized by green mechano-thermal methods. The synthesized material was characterized using XRD, FTIR, SEM, TGA, UV–vis, VSM, and XPS. The as-prepared rGO-CoFe2O4 with a suitable band gap of 1.89 eV was explored as a photoactive material in visible-light degradation of two basic dyes namely, basic red 46 (BR46) and basic red 18 (BR18). In photocatalysis, BR46 and BR18 were degraded up to 76 and 79%, with apparent rate constants of 0.0051 and 0.0045 min−1, respectively. In the photo Fenton-like reaction, the efficiency and the rate constant were enhanced compared to photocatalysis and found to be 88% and 0.0088 min−1 for BR46 and 90% and 0.0093 min−1 for BR18. The hydroxyl radicals were the main active species responsible in the visible/rGO-CoFe2O4/H2O2 system. The in vitro study on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) suggested the non-cytotoxicity of as-prepared nanocomposite.