Size and shape effects of MnFe2O4 nanoparticles as catalysts for reductive degradation of dye pollutants

The magnetic nanoparticles that are easy to recycle have tremendous potential as a suitable catalyst for environmental toxic dye pollutant degradation. Rationally engineering shapes and tailoring the size of nanocatalysts are regarded as an effective manner for enhancing performances. Herein, we successfully synthesized three kinds of MnFe2O4 NPs with distinctive sizes and shapes as catalysts for reductive degradation of methylene blue, rhodamine 6G, rhodamine B, and methylene orange. It was found that the catalytic activities were dependent on the size and shape of the MnFe2O4 NPs and highly related to the surface-to-volume ratio and atom arrangements. Besides, all these nanocatalysts exhibit selectivity to different organic dyes, which is beneficial for their practical application in dye pollutant treatment. Furthermore, the MnFe2O4 NPs could be readily recovered by a magnet and reused more than ten times without appreciable loss of activity. The size and shape effects of MnFe2O4 nanoparticles demonstrated in this work not only accelerate further understanding the nature of nanocatalysts but also contribute to the precise design of nanoparticles catalyst for pollutant degradation.