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Synthesis and their photocatalytic properties of Ni-doped ZnO hollow microspheres

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Abstract

Ni-doped ZnO hollow microspheres were fabricated by calcining the mixture of zinc and nickel citrate precursors at 500 °C for 2 h. The structure, composition, Barrett–Emmett–Teller specific surface area, and optical properties of Ni-doped ZnO samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, wave length dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, and ultraviolet (UV)-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic results demonstrated that the as-synthesized Ni-doped ZnO microcrystals possessed much higher photocatalytic activity than pure ZnO in the decomposition of methylene blue under UV-light irradiation. The present work suggests that Ni-doped ZnO hollow microspheres can be applied as an efficient photocatalyst for water polluted by some chemically stable azo dyes.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21505118), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2150438), Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Material and Environmental Engineering China (No.: K13065), Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions and Senior visiting scholar program of Jiangsu Higher Vocational College (No.: 2015FX089).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Material and Environmental Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China

    Yuanyou Wang & Tianqing Liu

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute, Yangzhou, 225127, China

    Yuanyou Wang

  3. School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Yuanyou Wang & Dan Shan

  4. Testing Center, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China

    Qingli Huang & Changle Wu

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  1. Yuanyou Wang
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Correspondence to Yuanyou Wang.

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Wang, Y., Liu, T., Huang, Q. et al. Synthesis and their photocatalytic properties of Ni-doped ZnO hollow microspheres. Journal of Materials Research 31, 2317–2328 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.137

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