Facile synthesis of Cu2S-NiS2 nanocomposite with highly active visible light photocatalyst for dye removal and biological evaluation

Abstract

Earth abundant metal sulphides such as Cu2S and NiS2 are potential materials to be used as photocatalysts because of their advantageous optical and biological aspects. In this research, a low-cost, high-speed, one step combustion production of novel Cu2S-NiS2 nanocomposite (NCs) was successfully developed. They are integrally characterized and evaluated as photocatalysts for dye degradation and biological uses. The synthesized NCs were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, EDAX, UV–Visible and PL. XRD data is well matched with JCPDS 03–1071 and 73–574 which correspond to Cu2S and NiS2 nanoparticles (NPs) respectively. FT-IR spectrum exhibits the existence of metal-sulphur bonding in Cu2S-NiS2 NCs. The optical energy band gap of Cu2S-NiS2 NCs was found 2.30 eV. Under visible light irradiation, the photocatalytic activity of Cu2S-NiS2 NCs on rose bengal dye was investigated. Cu2S-NiS2 NCs is more efficient photocatalyst than individual metal sulphide NPs. Also, an important aspect of this study was the exploration of the antimicrobial, antioxidant and antihemolytic properties of pure NPs and Cu2S-NiS2 NCs. The results from the biological screening exposed the fact that the Cu2S-NiS2 NCs demonstrated significantly higher pharmacological activities in comparison to pure NPs.