Photocatalytic performance of copper ferrite/polypyrrole nanohybrids: studies on visible light induced degradation of urea and microwave-assisted degradation of polyethylene films

Abstract The present work reports formulation of nanohybrids of CuFe 2 O 4 using polypyrrole (PPy) in the weight ratios of 1%, 3% and 5%. The synthesized nanohybrids were characterized using FTIR, UV–Vis, XRD and SEM–EDS. The optical band gaps were calculated to be 2.31 eV, 2.11 eV and 1.74 eV for 1-PPy/CuFe 2 O 4 , 3-PPy/CuFe 2 O 4 , and 5-PPy/CuFe 2 O 4 , respectively. The photocatalytic degradation of urea and polyethene (PE) was carried out under visible light irradiation to study the effect of degradation of pollutants in presence of an organic–inorganic hybrid photocatalyst. The nanohybrids showed superior photocatalytic performance when compared with pure CuFe 2 O 4 . The maximum photocatalytic degradation was found to be 62% within 120 min using 5-Ppy/CuFe 2 O 4 as photocatalyst and 40% degradation of PE films was achieved under microwave irradiation. The catalysts showed promising results for the highly efficient degradation of polymers. Graphical abstract Photocatalytic activity of polypyrrole/copper ferrite nanohybrids