Photocatalysis Degradation of Dye Using P-Type Nanoparticles

Abstract

People’s demand for resources has risen dramatically, triggering energy shortages and environmental degradation, along with the growth of industry and the improvement of people’s living standards. As a low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable technology, photocatalytic technology has shown great potential in recent years and it has become a hot research subject. However, current photocatalytic technology is not able to meet industrial requirements. In the industrialization of photocatalyst technology, the greatest challenge is the development of an ideal photocatalyst that should have four characteristics, including high photocatalytic efficiency, a large specific surface area, full sunlight utilization, and recyclability. Therefore, the present chapter deals with the synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activity of nickel oxide (NiO) nanoparticles (NPs), where the solution combustion method makes use of nickel nitrate as an oxidizer and oxalic acid as fuel for the synthesis. From the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the NiO NPs are found to have formed in a cubic structure with an average crystallite size of 34 nm. The successful formation of the NiO particles was confirmed by the FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopic analysis. The morphological analysis indicated the rod-like structure and EDX for the elemental composition. Further testing of the photocatalytic activity through the degradation of methyl orange (MO) dye confirmed an effective and potential catalytic nature of the synthesized NiO NPs.