Facile hydrothermal synthesis of highly efficient and visible light-driven Ni-doped V2O5 photocatalyst for degradation of Rhodamine B dye.

Nickel-doped vanadium pentoxide (Ni-doped V₂O₅) photocatalyst is prepared through facile hydrothermal method to investigate its performance as photocatalyst in degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye. Different characterization tools are employed for the investigation of structural, morphological and optical characteristics of Ni-doped V₂O₅. X-ray Diffraction technique confirms the formation of orthorhombic V₂O₅ and shows stable phase upon doping. The rod-like layer structure morphology is presented through Scanning Electron Microscopy. Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy confirms the purity of the prepared samples. The optical characteristics are evaluated through UV–Visible spectroscopy which reveals that bandgap of the material is decreased with increasing doping of Ni. The emission spectra of Ni-doped V₂O₅ is obtained through Photoluminescence Spectroscopy which confirms that the synthesized material is visible light-driven. The photocatalytic activity of optimized samples is evaluated through studying its potential in degradation of RhB dye. The influence of different parameters, i.e., light irradiation time, temperature of solution, pH of solution, amount of catalyst, etc., on the performance of photocatalyst is also studied. The degradation of RhB follows the pseudo first-order linear kinetics with degradation rate of 0.144 min⁻¹. The stability experiment ensures that Ni-doped V₂O₅ has potential to degrade the organic pollutants and dyes polluted wastewater for a number of cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]