The effect of an external magnetic field on the photocatalytic activity of CoFe2O4 particles anchored in carbon cloth

Abstract Reducing the recombination capacity of electron-hole pairs is essential to optimize the photocatalytic process guided by semiconductors. This research aims to use an external magnetic field to study the influence that the external potential generated by the field can cause in degradation systems by heterogeneous photocatalysis.The catalytic process is improved by Lorentz force, using Helmholtz Coils to generate a 200 m T field of flow, in a heterogeneous photocatalysis system that makes use of CoFe2O4 particles as a catalyst for the degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) and Ibuprofen (IB) solutions, both at 20 mgL-1of concentration. The characterization showed that the inverted spinel cobalt ferrites were successfully synthesized by the protein sol-gel method. In addition, the obtained material has an electronic structure similar to cobalt ferrites described in the literature and it has good degradation capacity of both solutions.. Photocatalytic efficiency could be improved by 80% in the best of conditions just by positioning a permanent photocatalytic field. This study suggests that the Lorentz force acts in a way that is contrary to the photogenerated electrons in the process, reducing the recombination of these charges.Experimentally and quantitatively it is possible to see the increased degradation capacity of the catalysts in the presence of the magnetic field, from spectroscopic analysis of the solution being degraded.