Molybdenum carbide doped with nanostructured nickel for application in degradation of reactive dyes

Abstract

Carbide-type ceramic materials such as nickel-doped molybdenum carbide have promising photocatalytic degradation activity. The addition of nickel to the molybdenum carbide aims to increase its reaction yield and also its characteristics. The objective of this paper was to study the photocatalytic activity of Mo2C and 5% and 10% nickel-doped Mo2C materials used for the degradation of the Maxilon Blue GRL 300 textile dye. The structural properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. For the determination of band gap energy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was used. The samples of the photocatalysis tests were analyzed by UV-visible spectroscopy. The best reaction yield was observed for the 5% nickel-doped molybdenum carbide sample in photocatalytic tests, reaching a yield of around 92% in the final concentration of the dye solution.