Crystal Plane Impact of ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag Nanoparticles Influencing Photocatalytical and Antibacterial Properties: Experimental and Theoretical Studies

[Image: see text] This paper describes the crystal interphase impact of ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag in the photodegradation of Rhodamine B. Prepared ZnFe(2)O(4) nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited with Ag NPs to offer ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag (0–2.5%). An X-ray diffraction peak corresponding to the Ag NPs was detected if the particle content reached about 2.0%, observing multiple crystalline interphases in HR-TEM. Magnetic saturation (Ms) was increased ∼160% times for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag (7.25 to 18.71 emu/g) and ZnFe(2)O(4) (9.62 to 25.09 emu/g) if the temperature is lowered from 298 to 5.0 K; while for Fe(3)O(4) (91.09 to 96.19 emu/g), the Ms increment was just about 5.6%. After analyzing the DFT–Density of State, a decrease of bandgap energy for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag(6) from the influence of the size of Ag cluster was seen. Quantum yield (Φ) was 0.60 for ZnFe(2)O(4), 0.25 for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag (1.0%), 0.70 for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag (1.5%), 0.66 for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag (2.0%), and 0.66 for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag (2.5%), showing that the disposition of Ag NPs (1.5–2.5%) increases the Φ to >0.60. The samples were used to photo-oxidize RhB under visible light assisted by photopowered Langmuir adsorption. The degradation follows first-order kinetics (k = 5.5 × 10(–3) min(–1)), resulting in a greater k = 2.0 × 10(–3) min(–1) for ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag than for ZnFe(2)O(4) (or Fe(3)O(4), k = 1.1 × 10(–3) min(–1)). DFT-total energy was used to analyze the intermediates formed from the RhB oxidation. Finally, the ZnFe(2)O(4)–Ag exhibits good antibacterial behavior because of the presence of Zn and the Ag components.