Study of Ni:CeO2 nanoparticles for efficient photodegradation of methylene blue by sun light irradiation

Pure and different concentration of Ni-doped CeO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using a sol-gel technique. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and TG-DTA measurements. The XRD analysis dictated that the product has CeO2 crystallites with cubic structure. The average crystallite size varied from 10.98 to 35.43nm. The SEM-EDAX analysis shows the nature of morphology and the presence of elements. A suitable temperature is selected using TG-DTA analysis to tune the optical band gap. The HR-TEM pictures show that the particles are spherical in shape and affirmed the XRD investigation. The optical properties of the nanoparticles are seen by UV-visible and PL spectroscopy. The structural bond vibrations of pure and Ni-doped CeO2 nanoparticles were analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of pure and Ni-doped CeO2 nanoparticles was assessed by methylene blue degradation in an aqueous solution which directed that the 0.1M.% of the Ni-doped CeO2 show the best photocatalytic movement.