Synergistic Effect of Nickel Doping on Photocatalytic Degradation of Quinoline Yellow Dye by BiFeO3 Nanoparticles under UV Light Exposure

In this paper, BiFeO3 and BiFe $$_{{(1 - x)}}$$ NixO3 (x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05) nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol–gel method. As an intrinsic ferromagnetic material, these nanoparticles can be easily recovered from the solvent system. The photocatalytic activity of these nanoparticles was evaluated by degrading quinoline yellow as a pollutant under UV light. The structural properties and morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The effect of various parameters on the photocatalytic degradation of quinoline yellow dye, including dye concentration, contact time, amount of H2O2, pH, and catalyst dose, was investigated and optimized. The photocatalytic degradation of quinoline yellow dye with a concentration of 8 mg/L, 0.1 g of catalyst dosage, and 1 mL of H2O2, under ultraviolet irradiation of a 250 W mercury lamp at pH 2 for 180 min, was: 60.48, 52, 58, 93% for values of x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05 in BiFe $$_{{1-x}}$$ NixO3 samples, respectively. Additionally, the experimental results of the photocatalytic degradation of quinoline yellow were fitted to the pseudo-first-order kinetic model.