Synthesis of NiFe₂O₄/NiSe Composite for Environmental Remediation

The growing world population is leading to widespread increases in environmental hazards and water contaminants, which are driving scientists to form eco-friendly, efficient, and safe catalysts to eliminate toxic contaminants from wastewater. In this project, we have synthesized the nickel ferrite (NiFe₂O₄) by a simple coprecipitation method, while NiSe has been synthesized by a hydrothermal method and their composite by a two-step method. X-ray diffraction has characterized the fabricated materials to confirm their crystal structure, scanning electron microscopy their morphology, and BET has been used to analyze their surface area. These fabricated materials have been used as photocatalysts for rhodamine B dye degradation, and it has been found that the composite materials degraded by up to 94% which is higher compared to the pristine materials. Scavenger experiments have confirmed that the hydroxyl (OH) radical is the major species that degrades the dye, while the composite also shows excellent structural stability after five consecutive runs.