Photocatalytic Activity of Pure and Nickel Doped Cadmium Sulphide Nanoparticles Synthesized via Co-Precipitation Method

Abstract

Cadmium sulfide is an important group of II-VI semiconducting nanomaterials with excellent physical properties and wide bandgap energy, are successful in the utilization of photocatalytic application. Photo technology is one of important technology to solve environmental and energy issues. Incorporating a transition metal ion dopant into CdS nanocrystalline is a convenient way to tailor its physical properties. In this present work, we have synthesized transition metal ion - nickel doped CdS nanocrystals via co-precipitation method. The objective of this research is to investigate the photocatalytic activity of pure and nickel doped CdS nanocrystals for the degradation of methylene blue and to provide an experimental base for further study and practical application in textile effluent and wastewater treatment processes. Many factors can influence the performance of photocatalytic activity such as phase composition, crystallite size, morphology, and energy gap. The structural and optical properties of as-synthesized materials were studied by XRD, EDAX, SEM, UV, PL, and FTIR. Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was performed by using nickel doped CdS nanoparticles in a photoreactor vessel irradiated by visible light from the tungsten lamp (λmax=400 nm).