Hydrothermal synthesis of highly uniform chalcopyrite CuFeS2 nanoparticles

Abstract

In this research work, high uniform CuFeS2 chalcopyrite with 20-40 nm particles were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method. Different analysis were used to characterize the obtained product such as X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The photocatalytic activity of the product was investigated by degradation three different dyes namely acid brown, acid red and methylene blue. The results showed the synthesized CuFeS2 nanoparticles have high photocatalytic activity and can degrade the used dyes in large quantities.