Structural, magnetic, photocatalytic, and electrochemical studies of the mesoporous Nickel oxide (NiO) nanostructures

Abstract Nickel oxide (NiO) is an interesting transition metal oxide with exceptional catalytic and electrochemical properties. The structural, magnetic, photocatalytic and electrochemical properties of the mesoporous NiO nanostructure synthesized using the sol-gel technique have been investigated. The structural analysis confirms the formation of mesoporous NiO with cubic structure. The magnetic measurement confirms the superparamagnetic behavior of the NiO nanostructure. The photocatalytic measurement shows a good catalytic behavior of the NiO mesoporous nanostructure with a 77.6 % degradation of the methylene blue dye (MB) after 6 h. Electrochemical measurement shows better electrochemical behavior of NiO-500 compared to NiO-600 and NiO-700. The photocatalytic and electrochemical properties are explained in terms of the surface area and the pore size distribution of the mesoporous structure.