Facile green fabrication of nanostructural Ni-doped ZnO hollow sphere as an advanced photocatalytic material for dye degradation

Through a green protocol, hollow forms of x-Ni-ZnO (x = 0, 2, 3, 5, and 10 wt% Ni) were prepared in ultrasonic bath at a low temperature using template fructose. For characterizing the shape, structure, crystallite phase, purity, and chemical composition of the prepared hollow spheres, the powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDAX), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), inductively coupled plasma (Icp), and ultraviolet-visible absorption (IJV-vis) spectroscopy were employed. Besides, the photo-catalytic properties of these hollow spheres for degrading Congo Red(CR) as an Azo dye were taken into account. According to the results, Ni-ZnO hollow spheres outperform the pure ZnO hollow spheres in terms of the photo catalytic activities. Furthermore, in order to show the impact of various morphologies on the CR dye degradation, the Ni-ZnO nanostructures were produced with rod-like, flower-like, and wood-like morphologies. Our synthesized Ni-ZnO hollow spheres seem to be highly promising for future applications in different commercial fields and industries. Moreover, they are applicable for photodegradation of other organic pollutants. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.