Surfactant-assisted synthesis of NiCo₂O₄/NiO nanocomposite by facile atmospheric pressure microplasma electrochemical process with photocatalytic applications

NiCo2O4/NiO nanocomposites were synthesized via atmospheric pressure microplasma electrochemical method. The influence of surfactants on the morphology and properties of as-synthesized nanostructures was studied. Nanorods, nanowires and nanoflowers like morphologies were obtained from SEM analysis. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to study the structural properties of NiCo2O4/NiO nanostructures and the crystallite size was found to be dependent on surfactants used. Photoluminescence (PL) study disclosed the band edge emission for NiCo2O4/NiO nanostructures with extra emission in visible region due to the presence of defects such as vacancy and interstitial. The functional characteristics of as-prepared nanostructures were carried out by Raman and FTIR spectroscopy. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of these nanostructures in the presence of sun light has been investigated using Rhodamine B (RhB) dye solution. It is found that 83.66% decolorization was obtained after 120 min of irradiation for this cationic dye, which showed that both the visible light and photocatalyst are important for effective decolorization of RhB dye.