Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of ZnO/NiO nanocomposites and kinetic study of their photocatalytic activity

In the present study, a facile ultrasonic-assisted method was developed for the synthesis of ZnO/NiO nanocomposites. The X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques was applied for characterization of structure, purity, morphology and optical properties of the resultant samples. The photocatalytic performance of the synthesized ZnO/NiO nanocomposites was evaluated by monitoring the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV light irradiation. Moreover, the influence of various parameters, such as molar percentage of NiO to ZnO, initial RhB concentration, pH of solution and photocatalyst weight was studied. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO/NiO nanocomposite was higher than that of pure ZnO and NiO.