Effect of Ni doping on structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of Zn1-XNiXO nanoparticles prepared by different pH conditions

Zn1-XNiXO (x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.04 & 0.06 mol %) nanoparticles were prepared by simple co-precipitation method. The influences of Ni doping on structure, morphology, optical and photocatalytic properties were investigated by means of Xray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV–Vis spectrophotometer and photochemical reaction method. The obtained result shows that the prepared ZnO nanocrystals were hexagonal wurtzite structure and the average crystallite size decreases with increase of Ni doping. The increase of visible light absorption and increase of band gap were found with the increase of Ni doping concentration, which enable the sample harvest more photons to excite the electron from valence band. The photocatalytic properties of Ni doped ZnO nanocrystals shows enhanced activity that the pure ZnO nanocrystals. The photocatalytic activities were not significantly affected by the particle size and 0.04% Ni doped ZnO nanocrystals shows best catalytic activity than the other catalysts.