Synthesis and characterisation of nano-sized nickel titanate photocatalyst

Abstract

Visible light activated nickel titanate (NiTiO3) nanopowders were synthesised by a simple and organic-free co-precipitation method. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterise the crystal structure. The average crystalline size of the synthesised nickel titanate is found to be 100 nm. The visible light photocatalytic activity was evaluated on the basis of photobleaching of methyl orange in aqueous solution. The results show that NiTiO3 exhibits good photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of nickel titanate under visible light is due to the lower band-gap value of nickel titanate (3.10 eV) compared to that of TiO2 (3.23 eV).