Hydrothermally derived nanosized Ni-doped TiO2: A visible light driven photocatalyst for methylene blue degradation

An environmental friendly nanocrystalline NixTiO2 (x = 5 and 7%) was synthesized by hydrothermal method. The requisite quantity of commercial TiO2 and Ni(NO3)2·6H2O was leached in alkaline medium using hydrothermal reactor at 120 °C. The anatase nanocrystalline undoped and Ni-doped TiO2 was obtained for the first time for the functional catalysis. The reported method is effective for the synthesis of visible light driven photocatalyst and easy to scale-up. XRD results showed that the nickel was doped in the form of NiO. SEM picture shows spherical morphology to Ni-doped TiO2 and nanofibered particle to hydrothermally treated TiO2 samples. FESEM pictures of hydrothermally alkali treated undoped and Ni-doped TiO2 powders afforded the particles size in the range of 50–85 nm. The DRS analysis confers visible absorption edge to Ni-doped TiO2 at 550 nm. Ni-doped TiO2 catalysts showed 63% more efficiency than the commercial TiO2 to degradation of methylene blue dye under visible light irradiation.