Abstract
In this paper, nanocomposite NiO/Cr2O3 has been synthesized by a simple chemical reduction method to study its photocatalytic activity under sunlight irradiation. Various advanced analytical techniques including powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), elemental mapping, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and UV-visible spectroscopy have been utilized to characterize the synthesized NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite. SEM images show the sheet-shaped morphology of NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite. These sheets have a rough surface with nano to micro size cracks. These cracks play important role in the enhancement of photocatalytic activity by increasing surface active sites for the adsorption of dye molecules on the surface of the photocatalyst. The organic dyes crystal violet (CV) and methylene blue (MB) have been chosen to study the photocatalytic behavior of NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite under sunlight irradiation. The photocatalytic efficiency of NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite has been obtained 88.47% and 93.63% against crystal violet and methylene blue respectively. The results of the photocatalytic kinetics exhibit that degradation rate constant value for crystal violet dye is higher as compared to methylene blue dye. Obtained kinetic results indicate that synthesized nanocomposite acts as an efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of both crystal violet dye and methylene blue dye. NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite also exhibited reusability and stability for photocatalytic degradation of both organic dyes. Photoelectrochemical measurements as photocurrent, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and Mott-Schottky plot were also performed for synthesized NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite. Consequently, this synthesized NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite can be utilized for environmental remediation of harmful dyes.
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Abbreviations
- GO:
-
graphene oxide
- MWCNTs:
-
multi-walled carbon nanotubes
- SWCNTs:
-
singled-walled carbon nanotubes
- SEM:
-
scanning electron microscopy
- TEM:
-
transmission electron microscopy
- EIS:
-
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
- EDX:
-
energy-dispersive X-ray
- ATR-FT-IR:
-
attenuated total reflections Fourier transform infrared spectrometer
- PXRD:
-
powder X-ray diffraction technique
- CV:
-
crystal violet
- MB:
-
methylene blue
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Acknowledgements
The authors highly acknowledge Principal, Miranda House, University of Delhi for necessary laboratory facilities. The authors thank USIC, University of Delhi for instrumental facilities. The authors acknowledge IUAC, New Delhi for TEM facility. The authors also thank Mr. Himanshu Gupta, Department of Physics, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, JLN Marg, Jaipur - 302017, Rajasthan, India, for helping in taking the photoelectrochemical measurements. Sapna Yadav presents her sincere thanks to CSIR, New Delhi (CSIR File No. 08/700(0004)/2019-EMR-I) for a senior research fellowship.
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Sapna Yadav would like to express her great appreciation CSIR, New Delhi for JRF (CSIR, File No. 08/700(0004)/2019-EMR-1).
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Conceptualization; Kalawati Saini, methodology writing-original draft; Sapna Yadav and Nutan Rani, photoelectrochemical measurements, supervision and editing; Kalawati Saini.
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Yadav, S., Rani, N. & Saini, K. Synthesis and characterization of NiO/Cr2O3 nanocomposite with effective sunlight driven photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 71957–71969 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22746-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22746-x