Synthesis and Characterization of Nickel Doped Titanium Dioxide Nano Crystals Composite for the Treatment of Tannery Dye Wastewater

Nickel doped Titanium dioxide nanocrystals composite was synthesized via wet-impregnation method for 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% Ni-TiO2 and characterized using X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), X-ray florescence (XRF), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and band gap energy. The XRD results reveal that the phase structure of the synthesized samples was mainly in pure anatase phase having crystalline size in the range of 7nm-11nm, spherical shapes with moderate aggregation of the crystal particles were observed under the SEM, the XRF gives the exact percentage dopant in Ni-TiO2 nano-crystal and the band gap energy was lowered from 3.1ev-2.95ev. The presence of the NiNO3 at TiO2 site has not only affected the nano-crystals morphologically but also induce the electronic property of the TiO2 by lowering the band gap energy from 3.1ev-2.95ev which prone the decolouration of organic pollutants. The photocatalyst synthesized was found to effective in the mineralization of dye wastewater under visible light irradiation.