Greener synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose connected covalent organic framework/CuFe2O4 as a magnetic nanocomposite with structural, optical, magnetic, and computational insights

Abstract The strategy of combining a covalent organic framework (COF) with an extrinsic functional material paves the way for the synthesis of new multifunctional nanocomposite with unprecedented properties. Herein, the N 1 , N 4 -bis(4-acetyl phenyl) xerophthalmia (COF 3 ) was produced in high yield under green conditions by the condensation of terpthoyldichloride with aminoacetopheneone in dioxane, forming the covalent organic framework. FT-IR, 1 HNMR, and SEM analyses verified the high chemical stability of the produced COF3. The electrostatic hydrogen interaction between COF 3 and carboxymethyl cellulose/CuFe 2 O 4 was established. CuFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles were successfully prepared and effectively integrated inside CMC, according to the XRD profile. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was used to study the optical characteristics, and the results showed that the optical band gap values for CMC, CuFe 2 O 4 , COF 3 , and COF 3 /CMC/CuFe 2 O 4 are 5.2, 1.5, 2.26, and 3.3 eV, respectively. Thus, the incorporation led to a reduction in the optical band gap, rendering the nanocomposite an efficient visible-light photocatalyst. While CMC and COF 3 were diamagnetic materials, the magnetic characteristics determined by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) confirmed that CuFe 2 O 4 and COF 3 /CMC/CuFe 2 O 4 exhibit weak ferromagnetic behavior. Additionally, the DFT/B3LYP/LAN2DZ(G) basis set was used to optimize the computational investigation of these composites and determine their physical descriptors, which demonstrated good agreement with the experimental results.