Remarkable enhancement in the photocatalytic activity of porous CeO2 nanoparticles through nickel doping for wastewater treatment

To enhance the structural and textural features of ceria (CeO2), a quick and easy auto combustion method was used to create porous ceria nanoparticles. Moreover, nickel ions were incorporated in the porous ceria nanoparticles with different contents (from 1 up to 10 wt%) by applying the same technique. Several characterisation techniques were used to characterize the produced samples, including XRD, DR UV-Vis, BET analysis, FTIR, SEM and HR-TEM. The results suggested that Ni ions were incorporated into the ceria framework and the average surface area of the entire samples is about 50 m(2)/g. More importantly, the produced materials' light absorption property was observed to be red shifted towards the higher wavelength, and the calculated bandgap reduced from 3.01 to 2.4 eV for bare porous ceria and 10% Ni doped ceria, respectively. The fabricated samples were examined as a photocatalysts in the decolourizing reaction of methyl green dye (MG) as a model pollutant in industrial wastewater under artificial visible light illumination. The photocatalytic results showed that there is a remarkable increase in the photocatalytic activity by almost three times higher compared to bare porous ceria sample. Furthermore, the prepared Ni doped ceria sample exhibited good reusability, with partial deactivation, up to the fourth consecutive reaction without treatment.

Automated summary

Porous ceria nanoparticles doped with nickel ions were successfully synthesized using a quick and easy auto combustion method. The synthesized materials were characterized by various techniques, and it was found that the incorporation of nickel ions into the ceria framework increased the surface area. Moreover, the nickel-doped samples exhibited a red shift in light absorption and showed significantly improved photocatalytic activity compared to bare ceria.