Evaluation of Photocatalytic Activity and the Role of H2O2 in the Treatment of Tetracycline using NiFe2O4 Material Synthesized by Co-precipitation Method
Main Article Content
Abstract
In our research, we employed the co-precipitation technique to fabricate NiFe2O4 material, revealing innovative photocatalytic properties in breaking down the antibiotic tetracycline (TC) while showcasing magnetic recoverability. The study further examined the effectiveness of H2O2 in acting as an electron (e-) acceptor to boost the TC degradation via photocatalysis process using NiFe2O4. The material’s structure and characteristics were analyzed through techniques such as SEM, XRD, UV-Vis DRS, and VSM. The findings indicated that the prepared material has high purity and consists of nanoparticles approximately 40 nm in size. The synthesized NiFe2O4 material exhibited magnetic properties, allowing it to be recovered using an external magnetic field. After 240 minutes, under visible light, 75.75% of TC was removed, with significant degradation through photocatalysis. With the addition of H2O2, this efficiency reached 86.03%. Notably, the photocatalytic activity and magnetic properties of NiFe2O4 exhibited stability for at least five cycles. These findings underscore the significant potential of NiFe2O4 for practical applications in TC removal in general and organic substances in particular.
Keywords:
NiFe2O4; Photocatalysis; Tetracycline degradation; Co-precipitation method; Magnetic recoverability.
References
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[4] L. Xu et al., Occurrence, Fate, and Risk Assessment of Typical Tetracycline Antibiotics in the Aquatic Environment: A Review, Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 753, 2021, pp. 141975.
[5] Y. Amangelsin et al., The Impact of Tetracycline Pollution on the Aquatic Environment and Removal Strategies, Antibiotics, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2023, pp. 440.
[6] R. Vinayagam, T. Varadavenkatesan, R. Selvaraj, Tetracycline Adsorption Research (2015–2025): A Bibliometric Analysis of Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions. Results in Engineering, Vol. 27, 2025, pp. 106383.
[7] A. Joseph, V. Manirethan, AgTiO3 Synthesis and Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline. Materials Today: Proceedings, 2024.
[8] S. Li et al., Degradation of Leachate and High Concentration Emerging Pollutant Tetracycline through Electro Oxidation, Journal of Environmental Sciences, Vol. 159, 2026, pp. 142-153.
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[10] J. Niu et al., Visible-Light-Mediated Sr-Bi2O3 Photocatalysis of Tetracycline: Kinetics, Mechanisms and Toxicity Assessment. Chemosphere, Vol. 93, No. 1, 2013, pp. 1-8.
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[14] X. Li et al., Strong Adsorption of Tetracycline on Carbon Blacks: An In-depth Study of the Adsorption Mechanism, Journal of Water Process Engineering, Vol. 70, 2025, pp. 106784.
[15] A. Serrà et al., Facile Cost-Effective Fabrication of Cu@ Cu2O@ CuO–Microalgae Photocatalyst with Enhanced Visible Light Degradation of Tetracycline, Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 413, 2021, pp. 127477.
[16] M. A. Mamun et al., Photocatalytic Activity Improvement and Application of UV-TiO2 Photocatalysis in Textile Wastewater Treatment: A Review, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 5, 2019, pp. 103248.
[17] P. Chavan, L. Naik, Investigation of Energy Band Gap and Conduction Mechanism of Magnesium Substituted Nickel Ferrite Nanoparticles, Physica Status Solidi (a), Vol. 214, No. 1, 2017, pp. 1700077.
[18] F. Majid et al., Synthesis and Characterization of NiFe2O4 Ferrite: Sol–gel and Hydrothermal Synthesis Routes Effect on Magnetic, Structural and Dielectric Characteristics, Materials Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 258, 2021,
pp. 123888.
[19] R. Sen et al., Synthesis and Characterization of Nickel Ferrite (NiFe2O4) Nanoparticles Prepared by Sol-Gel Method, Materials Today: Proceedings, Vol. 2, No. 4-5, 2015, pp. 3750-3757.
[20] Q. Zhang et al., Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Antibiotics Using Three-Dimensional Network Structure Perylene Diimide Supramolecular Organic Photocatalyst under Visible-light Irradiation, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Vol. 277, 2020, pp. 119122.
[21] L. Sun et al., Influence of Cu2+ Doping on the Structure, Dielectric and Magnetic Properties of NiFe2O4 Prepared by the Sol-Gel Method, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Vol. 449, 2018, pp. 545-551.
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[23] N. N. Tri et al., The Adsorption of Tetracycline, Ciprofloxacin on Reduced Graphene Oxide Surfaces: Role of Intermolecular Interaction, Chemical Physics, Vol. 579, 2024, pp. 112207.
[24] N. Arumugham et al., Nickel Ferrite-Based Composites and its Photocatalytic Application–A Review, Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances, Vol. 8, 2022, pp. 100156.