Study of iron oxide nanoparticles doped with manganese for catalytic degradation of methylene blue

Abstract

Modification of iron oxide nanoparticles by doping with transition metals has been intensively reported and many applications have been proven. Magnetic and structural properties, and the catalytic activity of undoped and manganese doped iron oxide nanoparticles for degradation of methylene blue have been studied. Preparation of undoped and manganese doped iron oxide nanoparticles was done by ball milling method using Logas natural sand as raw materials. The magnetic properties of the samples were determined using vibration sample magnetometer (VSM). A detailed analysis of the loop hysteresis reveals a reduction of saturation magnetization of the samples towards higher manganese-doping concentration (wt.%). The reduction in magnetization from 13.25 to 11.67 emu/g and enhanced the coercivity on manganese-doped samples from 224.35 to 352.18 Oe are observed to produce an improvement in the catalytic activity for manganese doped iron oxide nanoparticles compared to undoped samples. Catalytic activity of undoped and manganese doped iron oxide nanoparticles in the degradation of methylene blue was studied through ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). Manganese doped iron oxide nanoparticles exhibit better catalytic activity for degrading methylene blue (88.880%) compared to that for undoped iron oxide nanopartices (81.805%) for 300 minutes reaction time.