Fabrication of novel magnetic CdS nanorods/NiFe2O4/NaX zeolite nanocomposites with enhanced sonocatalytic performance in the degradation of organic dyes

In present research, for the first time, the novel magnetic CdS nanorods (NRs)/NiFe2O4/NaX zeolite sonocatalyst nanocomposite was succesfully synthesized by the simple ultrasound-assisted solvothermal method. Several techniques including FTIR, FE-SEM, EDAX, EDAX elemental dot-mapping, TEM, AFM, XRD, VSM, UV-Vis DRS, and N2-BET were utilized to identify the as-fabricated catalyst. Then, the CdS nanorods/NiFe2O4/NaX catalyst nanocomposite was used for the degradation of methylene blue (MB), eriochrome black T (EBT), rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO) organic dyes in aqueous solutions assisted by the ultrasound irradiation under UV-Vis absorption analysis. The sonodegradation processes of dye contaminants were carried out in the presence of H2O2 as an oxidizing agent. Elsewhere, the effect of different experimental parameters namely irradiation time, process type, catalyst dosage, initial dye concentration, H2O2 concentration, scavenger type, and catalyst reusability over the degradation reactions of MB, EBT, RhB and MO were investigated. Furthermore, to study the sonodegradation reactions of dyes, the first-order kinetic model was employed. Pursuantly, the rate constant (kapp) and half-life (t1/2) for the degradation of MB in the US/H2O2/CdS NRs/NiFe2O4/NaX system were measured as 0.0538 min-1 and 12.881 min, respectively. Also, the acquired information unveils the prominent role of •OH known as radical scavenger derived from H2O2 in the entire sonodegradation reaction.