Comparative study on photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue using pristine ZnO and Ni/ZnO composite films

Abstract

Industrial dye wastewater is rich in organic molecules that are harmful to all types of living organisms. The present work investigates the potential of the incorporation of Ni nanoparticles into ZnO films in order to enhance the photocatalytic degradation performance. Pristine ZnO has been widely used as a photocatalyst in a photocatalytic degradation treatment of wastewater, however can only be activated by UV light. Incorporation of Ni into ZnO can broaden the light spectrum by using both visible light and UV for the reaction, therefore enhancing the degradation efficiency. The experimental runs were performed to evaluate the effect of incorporation of Ni nanoparticles into ZnO films and morphology of Ni nanoparticles (rod-cubic-like and chain-like shapes) on the photocatalytic degradation efficiency. In this study, methylene blue was used as a model wastewater. The results revealed that addition of Ni enhanced the degradation efficiency to 44% (rod-cubic-like) and 40% (chain-like), compared to that of pristine ZnO of 33%.