One pot chemical synthesis of ultrafine NiAl2O4 nanoparticles: physico-chemical properties and photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes under visible light irradiation

Abstract

Ultrafine NiAl2O4 nanoparticles were prepared by simple one-pot chemical precipitation route. The precursor materials used were nickel nitrate hexahydrate and aluminum nitrate nonahydrate (as the basic materials) and sodium hydroxide (as a precipitator material). In a typical experiment, aqueous nitrate solutions were added drop wise to the alkaline solution in a magnetic stirrer under stirring. The resultant dark green colored precipitate was washed with water/ethyl alcohol (1:1 v/v) and dried. Finally, the sample was heat treated at 800 °C for 3 h in order to get the phase pure product. The prepared NiAl2O4 nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, FTIR, particle size analysis, SEM and UV. The band gap energy (E g) of NiAl2O4 was found to be 3.05 eV. The photocatalytic degradation of malachite green and methylene blue over NiAl2O4 under visible light was carried out and the obtained results were discussed in this article.