Synthesis of NiO Nanoparticles using Chemical Precipitation Method for the Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye

This study reports the synthesis of phase pure NiO nanoparticles (NPs) employing a simple chemical precipitation method followed by calcination and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) methods. The photocatalytic degradation performance of the synthesized NPs towards one of the common water pollutants, methylene blue (MB) dye, was tested under natural sunlight irradiation, and the impact of varying dye initial concentration and catalyst dose was also investigated. The results indicated that a degradation percentage of about 85% can be achieved for 5 ppm initial concentration of the dye under sunlight irradiation for a period of 2h at the natural pH of the reaction medium without adding any oxidizing agent. However, an elimination efficiency of 58.1% can be achieved just by using 20 mg of the catalyst for 10 ppm dye concentration in 2h irradiation while keeping other parameters unchanged. This indicates that the as-prepared NiO NPs can be used to eradicate MB contaminants from an aqueous solution.