Sol-Gel Synthesis and Characterization Studies of NiMoO4 Nanostructures for Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye

Nanostructured nickel molybdate (NiMoO4) nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully synthesized by using nickel nitrate and ammonium molybdate as the precursors and citric acid as the fuel by a simple modified sol-gel method. The prepared samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectra, high resolution scanning electron microscope (HR-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), photoluminescence (PL) spectra and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. Powder XRD, FT-IR and EDX results were confirmed that the resultant powders was pure and single phase crystalline with monoclinic structure. HR-SEM images show that the morphology of the obtained powder consist nanostructued particles-like morphology. VSM results showed ferromagnetic behavior of the samples. Photo-catalytic activity of NiMoO4 NPs was tested for the photo-catalytic degradation (PCD) of methylene blue (MB) and it was found that higher PCD efficiency.