Synthesis of CuFe₂O₄ Nanoparticles by Microwave Combustion Method: Structural, Morphological, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties

Copper ferrite (CuFe₂O₄) nanoparticles were synthesized by microwave combustion method and characterized by various techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed crystallinity with an average crystallite size of 34.3 nm. The FTIR peaks associated with FTIR identified strong metal-oxygen bonds such as Fe–O stretching peak at 535 cm^–1 and Cu–O stretching peak centered at 402 cm^–1. The optical properties were studied by UV-visible diffractance spectroscopy (DRS) showed the bandgap energy of 1.99 eV. Scanning electron microscopy of the samples revealed a spherical morphology with the agglomeration. In addition, an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was employed to confirm the qualitative analysis which showed peaks for copper and iron together with oxygen. The thermal behavior can be determined from thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) which showed that, in a temperature range of 50–1100°C this CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles exhibited notable stability with total weight loss approximately by 5.7%. The photocatalytic degradation experiments were conducted and the results revealed that CuFe₂O₄ have attained maximum efficiency up to about >90% for methylene blue dye degradation under visible light within 120 min time interval. The photodegradation results suggest that CuFe₂O₄ NPs may serve as an excellent photocatalyst in numerous applications, including environmental remediation.